High-level panel to tackle human trafficking

The New Straits Times
by KOI KYE LEE AND KRISTY INUS

SEPANG: THE Home Ministry has agreed to form a high-level committee to deal with 

human trafficking issues.

The decision to set up the committee came about during a meeting by the Council for Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Mapo).

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the committee would be tasked to deal with human trafficking matters in Malaysia.

He said the committee was the way forward for Malaysia in addressing recommendations made in the United States Department of State Trafficking In Persons (USTIP) Report 2014.

“Certain recommendations in the USTIP Report 2014 requires amendments to the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act (ATIPSOM) 2007, particularly the proposal for trafficking victims being allowed to stay outside shelter homes, as well as the freedom to move and take up employment.

“These matters will be thoroughly studied by the Legislative Committee headed by the Attorney-General’s Chambers under Mapo.”

On non-governmental organisations’ (NGO) participation in victims’ protection, the minister said work with local NGOs would continue.

“The government will continue working with the NGOs concerning psychosocial health, therapy, case management, counseling and medical services.”

Earlier, Zahid met US Ambassador-At-Large on Trafficking in Persons Luis CdeBaca.

The main purpose of CdeBaca’s visit was to engage Malaysian ministers and government officials following the release of the USTIP Report 2014 on June 20.

Zahid said the visit was the best platform for Malaysia to engage with the US and better understand measures or actions that were essential to improve the nation’s tier rating for the next evaluation year.

Among the issues highlighted in the report was that the Malaysian government had failed to comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and was deemed as not making any significant effort to comply with the minimum standards.

Several issues in the report require rectification on the part of the Malaysian government, especially on victims’ protection.

In the 2012 and 2013 reports, Malaysia was granted consecutive waivers. However, a waiver is no longer available given the nation’s demotion to Tier 3.

Meanwhile, in Kota Kinabalu, Zahid said the restructuring of the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) would see a review of its operations, including its standard operating procedure (SOP).

“We know no SOP is perfect ... it depends on situational changes, we need to be specific — on demands including from the public.

“Having assets and manpower is not enough, we also need intelligence and the gathering of information. This is something we are working on, with assistance from the Philippines.

“We thank the prime minister for believing in us, and hopefully this will be a new era in fine-tuning Esscom operations,” he said, adding that Esscom would be officially taken over by the Royal Malaysia Police on July 15.

Speaking to reporters at the breaking of fast with ministry staff in Sabah, Zahid said the appointment of Deputy Commissioner of Police Datuk Abd Rashid Harun as Esscom commander was apt, considering his vast experience in the force.

Regarding the status of Esscom director-general Datuk Mohammad Mentek, he said, it would be decided by the National Security Council and the prime minister.

Present at the event was Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohd Bakri Zinin.

1,000 human trafficking victims rescued since 2008

The Star 

PUTRAJAYA: Enforcement agencies have rescued nearly 1,000 victims of human trafficking in raids since 2008.

The Council against Human Trafficking and Smuggling of Migrants said 977 victims – 260 men, 595 women and 122 children – were granted protection and given shelter at safe houses over the period.

They were rounded up in 439 cases, of which 412 led to charges in court and 78 convictions.

Authorities also managed to rope in 655 migrants being smuggled into the country in 31 cases since Nov 15, 2010.

The council also announced its decision to place police and Immigration Department officers temporarily at the Workforce De­­partment for guidance, training and to share knowledge to push for more effective enforcement of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act.

Human organs harvested in M’sia

When a body organ 'agent' offered to buy his kidney, destitute and desperate Bangladeshi Mohsin Abdul's only thought was: “I could live with one kidney and having two of these will not help me ease my debts".

It’s a scenario that has taken many forms. It could be something we would have first heard many years ago from a friend who’d heard it from another friend, whose mother swore it happened to a distant cousin.

In that version, the victim — we’ll call him Bill — was on a business trip alone somewhere in Europe, and went out to a bar one night to have a cocktail. He wakes up the next morning in an unfamiliar hotel room with severe pain in his lower back.

He is taken to the emergency room, where doctors determined that Bill, unknowingly had undergone major surgery the night before. One of his kidneys had been removed, cleanly and professionally.

This is a chilling tale. With minor variations, the same story has been retold thousands of times by different people in many varied locales. And it’s always based on third-, fourth-, or fifth-hand information.

But while the ‘tale’ may be an urban legend for the rest of us, for 33-year-old Mohsin Abdul, it’s his story.

Mohsin had his kidney harvested almost 10 years ago when he was a 24-year-old farmhand in an obscure Dhaka village called Joypurhat in Bangladesh.

Joypurhat was featured in a report on illegal organ trafficking published by Bernama Online in September last year.

The report named Malaysia as one of the countries implicated in an investigation by Bangladeshi police into an international syndicate allegedly involved in the illegal kidney trade across several countries in Asia.

The news article also said that investigators were focusing on a reputable international hospital with a presence in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and India.

Initial investigations had revealed that donors from remote villages in Bangladesh had been flown to the various destinations to have their kidneys harvested.

Organ ‘agent’ offered plenty

Joypurhat Superintendent of Police, Mozammel Haque, told Bernama Online that each victim was paid between US$2,000 (RM6,000) and US$3,000 (RM9,000) for a kidney, but could not confirm the organ’s eventual black market price.

He added that at least seven cases involving the illegal sale of kidneys had been reported in the Joypurhat area in northern Bangladesh so far.

This is also where Mohsin is from and where he earned meagre wages toiling the land as a Bangladeshi farmer. Adding to this, was his struggle with repaying a series of loans worth about RM2,500.

This he said, was what made him take the advice of an acquaintance from a nearby village to sell one of his kidneys and get in return at least 130,000 takas (approx US$1,728 or RM5300).

He was told that there was an “agent” who was looking to buy kidneys and that he would be taken to a country called Malaysia where the surgery would be performed. Mohsin was informed that he would be paid half the amount before the surgery and the balance would be given upon his return to Bangladesh.

“I thought to myself that I could live with one kidney and having two of these will not help me ease my debts. With the amount they were going to pay me for one of my kidneys, there was so much I could do.

“To be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because I was convinced that this was a once a in a lifetime offer.

“I was actually afraid that the agent would go away and I would never see him again. I was desperate. Anyone who has ever been destitute and desperate will know what I’m talking about,” he said with unflinching frankness.

Kidney harvested in Malaysia

When asked if he was aware that it’s illegal to sell human organs and that violation of the law can lead to jail terms of three to seven years and fine of 300,000 takas (approx RM11, 200), Mohsin shakes his head in the negative.

So Mohsin flew to Malaysia, was picked up from the airport and brought to a house, which had a room converted into a surgery area. He remembers waking up the next day and being given RM500.

He was told that in three days, someone would come over with the plane ticket and take him to the airport where he would also be given the balance of the money owed for his kidney.

In three days, someone did come, but there was no plane ticket and most certainly no ride to the airport. He was left outside a 24-hour convenient store in an area Mohsin would later come to know as Chow Kit.

He was never paid the balance of what he was promised for his kidney.

Today, he works at a carwash and in a gas station.He also does other odd jobs to save up for a plane ticket home. It was one full year after his kidney’s were harvested when he was able to contact his family in Dakka.

A decade on, and his dreams of home are as vivid as ever, but the same is unfortunately true of the harrowing experience he encountered.

We are now in a tiny flat he shares with 15 other Bangladeshi immigrants, and the heat is stifling more so because all his flatmates are in for the day.

Mohsin winces at the noise. It’s on days like this, he said, that he misses home even more and said that if all goes according to plan, he might be able to go home in a year.

His friend Abdal Musiri tells him, in laboured tones, that he will do this.

US$50 million industry

Abdal was also a victim of a harvested organ and with all he has encountered, Mohsin considers his fate better than Abdal’s.

Formerly a factory worker, Abdal sold part of his liver to a wealthy recipient in Kuala Lumpur. Abdal admits that back then, he did not know what a liver was. But the fact the broker told him the sale would make him rich was all the convincing Abdal needed.

After the transplant Abdal received only part of the money he was promised and is now too sick to work, walk long distances or even breathe property. He thinks often of killing himself, Mohsin said.

The illegal world of human organs trade was valued at around US$50 million in 2008, and involves a range of source countries.

Due to extreme poverty and high profits, illegal organ transplantations have risen in India and Pakistan over the past two decades.

The people selling their organs are exploited by unethical brokers and recipients who are often Bangladeshi-born foreign nationals living in places such as the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Because organ-selling is illegal, the brokers forge documents indicating the recipient and seller are related and claim the act is a family donation.

Even so, like so many urban legends fueled by irrational fear and ignorance, the organ theft story continues to spread from person to person and place to place, changing and adapting to its surroundings over time like a very savvy and smart mutating virus.

And unlike many other urban legends, unfortunately, this one has put real people’s lives at risk.

Sharp rise in human trafficking to Malaysia: Report

 KISHANGANJ: The Indian embassy in Malaysia has, in a message to the state police, conveyed its concern over the growing menace of human traffick-ing to Malaysia from this part of Bihar.

Kishanganj SP Ranjit Kumar Mishra, confirming the message from the Indian embassy, said a probe conducted after four boys escaped from Ma-laysia and landed at Kishanganj on March 23 has disclosed that the racket had assumed gigantic proportions with its wide network spread over to Chennai and Siliguri.

An FIR lodged by escapee Jehangir Alam with the Kochadhaman police station states the traffickers modus operandi. Zila parishad member and Congress leader Lalit Kumar, his brother Luxman, their two cohorts Zabul and Anuj and Pak agent Rana have been charged with human trafficking. Indian traffickers are in cahoots with Pakistan agents in Malaysia who take care of the racket in Malaysia. An NGO is also under scanner, police said.

The FIR has been lodged under sections 467, 468, 471, 420, 120(B) IPC, among others, and 12/16 of Bandhuva Majdoor Unmoolan Act, according to SDPO PK Das.

Alam told TOI, adding inducing fear of arrest by police and subsequent jail term, they made us obey their orders. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/TNNMalay26docclrd/-512Sharp-rise-in-human-trafficking-to/articleshow/7796102.cms