Train people to spot trafficking victims, says US official

 

The US State Department’s annual human trafficking report lists Malaysia in the Tier 3 category. (AFP pic)

PETALING JAYA: Train ground-level staff in all departments and businesses to spot human trafficking victims, says a specialist in the field from Houston, a hotspot in the United States for illegal immigration.

Staff at government departments and businesses can be taught to identify human trafficking victims in the course of their day-to-day duties, said Minal Patel Davis, director of human trafficking and domestic violence at the Houston mayor’s office.

She said the Houston health and police departments, as well as hotels and restaurants, among others, had put such training into practice, she said at the Universiti Malaya (UM) law faculty, where she presented Houston’s anti-human trafficking strategic plan.

Davis said Houston’s health department had trained all its 1,200 employees, including food inspectors who monitor restaurants for trafficking warning signs.

Minal Patel Davis.

Another initiative was training hotel employees to identify and report trafficking, while the hotels and airports displayed anti-human trafficking notices in foreign languages as well.

Campaigns on radio and television had helped increase calls to the human trafficking hotline by 80%, she said.

The US State Department ranks Malaysia on Tier 3 in its latest human trafficking report for not fully meeting minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and not making significant efforts to do so.

The home ministry has reported a rising trend in human trafficking cases, with 115 reported in 2021 compared with 17 in 2008. - FMT