Trafficking Abuse of Myanmar Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia

Religion Today | Updated: Mar 06, 2014

Trafficking Abuse of Myanmar Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia

Malaysia’s status as anti-human-trafficking is in danger as the trafficking of Rohingya Muslims into Malaysia increases, reports Reuters on Salem Radio News. The struggling country is currently ranked on Tier Two of the U.S. State Department’s human trafficking watchlist, and could be demoted to Tier Three if things don’t improve from the situations in recent months. Chris Lewis, advocate for the Rohingya people and coordinator for the Arkan Project, says, “[The problem] is definitely increasing…In more and more stories I have heard recently they (Rohingya) have been detained in Malaysia.” Mohamed Einous, a young refugee being held in Myanmar, believed his chances of making a livelihood would increase when he was traded to a new gang in Malaysia,seen by many as “the promised land.” Instead of finding freedom, he was beaten and his parents forced to sell their home and borrow from relations in order to pay for his ransom. The intensified smuggling of brokers and gangs into Malaysia creates a tragic dissonance with the government’s firm public stance against illegal immigration, and draws attention to the permeable state of the country’s 310 mile-long northern border.



Trafficking Abuse of Myanmar Rohingya Spreads to Malaysia