It was a painful lesson but when Malaysia was listed as among the top countries encouraging forced labour, the government went into overdrive in mitigating the issue and finding solutions soonest possible.
Instead of denying or ignoring, the respective ministries went into hyperdrive and worked towards rectifying the complaints and enforced industries guilty of executing such heinous acts to buck up or face the law.
With Malaysia now moving up the tier on improvements, the Ministry of Human Resources said it will continue to intensify activities enforcement in combating various labor issues and this includes the Forced Labour issue.
Through the legal provisions, the Ministry said it will implement as many inspection operations as possible either in an integrated manner or in stages, and will also act on any complaints if they exist the element of forced labor even if only one of the 11 indicators of forced labor outlined by the International Labor Organization is highlighted.
Malaysia has recently amended the Housing Minimum Standards Act, Accommodation and Employee Facilities 1990 which aims to force employers to provide a minimum standard of housing and facilities which will improve the quality of life of employees. There is also now a social security protection program for occupational injury scheme for foreign workers that took effect in 2019. These are all steps in line with the core principles of the ILO’s Good Work Agenda.
Global efforts in combating forced labour was enforced with the commitment of countries ratifying the convention ILO on forced labour- the C029 – Forced Labor Convention, 1930 (No.29) on 11 November 1957 and the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labor Convention, 1930 (P029) which was ratified on March 21, 2022.
Malaysia has also followed suit and had amendments to Employment Acts in addition to launching the National Action Plan (2021 – 2025) on forced labour in November 2021. Next, Malaysia is also in the process of joining the joined Alliance 8.7 as one of the supporting Pathfinder countries in SDG target 8.7 which aims to accelerate the elimination of forced labour, modern slavery by 2030 and child labor by the year 2025.
The Ministry will also continue to work with stakeholders such as the Ministry of the Interior, Government Agencies of foreign countries, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, community organizations civil and relevant stakeholders, to realize the objectives of the Plan National Action on Anti-Trafficking in Persons 2021-2025 (NAPTIP 3.0), and the National Action Plan on Forced Labor 2021- 2025 (NAPFL).
