Serdang MP Dr Ong Kian Ming pointed out that the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report had downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3 status last year for not complying with the "minimum standards" to deal with human trafficking.
"As long as the Malaysian government refuses to have an honest examination of its policies towards refugees and migrants, our human trafficking record will continue to languish," Ong said in a statement.
"The recent humanitarian crisis involving the Rohingyas is but the tip of a much larger iceberg of the human trafficking problem in our country which the Malaysian government, led by the prime minister, refuses to acknowledge even exists," he added.
The state department report states that refugees in Malaysia lack formal status and were vulnerable to trafficking.
More than 1,000 Rohingya refugees, who are labelled by United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in their home nation Myanmar, landed in Langkawi by boat recently after being stranded for months.
The government, however, had refused to acknowledge them as refugees, and even went on to turn away another boat carrying 800 more people and sent it back to sea.
Thousands of Rohingyas are believed to be stranded at sea after being abandoned on boats by their traffickers. They are reported to have been lacking basic amenities for months now.
The Indonesian government has also towed away some of the boats carrying Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees from waters off the coast of Aceh to international waters.
- TMI
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