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Project Liber8  empowers youth to understand human trafficking, forced labour, exploitation and discrimination which they  hope will  inspire a greater sense of empathy towards victims.

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Sahabat Wanita supports women workers in their struggles to improve their lives, livelihoods and institutions that represent them.

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NSI works by facilitating partnerships between businesses, governments, and civil society organisations to develop innovative solutions for vulnerable communities through sustainable development challenges. 

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Tenaganita is a human rights and non-profit organisation dedicated to helping, building and protecting migrants, refugees, women and children from exploitation, discrimination, slavery and human trafficking.

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By Plane

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By Boat

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By Sea

What do they do? 

How do they stop Trafficking?

What do they do? 

How do they stop Trafficking?

What do they do? 

How do they stop Trafficking?

What do they do? 

How do they stop Trafficking?

What do they do? 

 

How do they stop Trafficking?

Myth: Traffickers Are Willing Participants In THE CRIME.

Reality: Human trafficking is a complex issue deeply rooted in many systematic issues, and it’s not uncommon for traffickers to participate purely to escape their own victimization. The traffickers may have been trafficked themselves and seized the opportunity to ‘move up’ and avoid being trafficked further. They may also feel like they have no other skill or option for survival but to turn to a life of crime/ illegal activity.

Myth: The Best Way To Fight Trafficking Is To REMOVE VICTIMS FROM THE SITUATION.

Reality: While it may seem like removing victims from their situation is the best way to help them, that action could be highly dangerous and even classified as kidnapping or harbouring. Reporting to the proper authorities is the best action to take if you suspect trafficking. When the police are able to rescue the survivor and arrest the traffickers involved, significant impact is made. With the traffickers facing criminal charges, they are prevented from trafficking more victims, and human trafficking itself becomes a more dangerous crime for criminals

Myth: Rescue Brings IMMEDIATE RELIEF For Survivors.

Reality: For survivors, the process of police rescue is often traumatic. Many have a deep fear of law enforcement and have extreme panic and confusion during an operation. Survivors then are asked to give testimony to police regarding their abuse, which is further traumatizing. It is not uncommon for victims to try and hide or escape from police during a rescue operation. Rescue is not the final step to freedom for each survivor, but, rather, it is the beginning of a lifelong process of healing.

Myth: Victims And Traffickers Are USUALLY STRANGERS.

Reality: Sadly, in over 60%* of cases, victims are familiar with their traffickers. A trafficker could be a family friend, a significant other, or a close relative. Familial trafficking is a horrific reality where a victim’s trafficker is either a direct family member or known—and often trusted—by the victim’s family. When the trafficker already has a connection to the victim, it can be easier to coerce the victim into forced sex or labor.

Myth: HUMAN SMUGGLING And Human Trafficking Are The Same.

Reality: Human smuggling involves illegally moving people across a country’s borders. Human trafficking, on the other hand, is when “traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to control victims for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts or labour services against his/her will.” In some cases, human trafficking includes smuggling, but not in every human smuggling case is there human trafficking.

Myth: Human Trafficking Only Happens in IMPOVERISHED COMMUNITIES.

Reality: While those living in poverty are disproportionately affected by human trafficking, there is no single face that fits this crime. People of every race, gender identity, age, and economic situation can be susceptible to labour and sex trafficking. Vulnerability can stem from a variety of reasons, and poverty is only one such circumstance.

Myth: All Trafficking Victims Are WOMEN.

Reality: It is true that the majority of human trafficking victims are women (75% according to Polaris | We Fight to End Human Trafficking); however, men and boys are widely affected by sex and labour trafficking, as well. The misconception that males are rarely or never affected can be dangerous, leading to fewer preventative and aftercare programs specifically targeted towards those who identify as male.

Myth: All Traffickers Are MEN.

Reality: While the majority of traffickers are men, women also play a prominent role in trafficking. According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), an estimated 72% of convicted traffickers are male, and 28% are female. Some female offenders were once victims themselves and turned to trafficking to escape their own victimisation.

Myth: MAJOR BRANDS don’t Use Slave Labor.

Reality: The 2018 report from KnowTheChain – KnowTheChain shows that some of the companies most likely to use slave labour are brands we use in our everyday lives. From clothing, to technology, to food, this report highlights the ethics of big name companies so you can make an informed choice. Take some time to read the full report and see how major brands stack up.

 Myth: Human Trafficking Is An OVERSEAS PROBLEM.

Reality: Human trafficking happens in nearly every single country around the world, and it’s most likely happening where you live.

Myth: SLAVERY Doesn’t Exist Anymore.

Reality: Human trafficking is synonymous with slavery. In fact, many refer to human trafficking as modern-day slavery and vice versa. By definition, a slave is a person who is treated as property, bought, and sold to be held in servitude. With an estimated 40.3 million modern-day slaves in the world, slavery is an even more widespread issue today than it has been at any other point in recorded history.

Myth: Labour trafficking is only or primarily a problem in DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Reality: Labour trafficking occurs in the United States and in other developed countries but is reported at lower rates than sex trafficking.

Myth: If the trafficked person CONSENTED to be in their initial situation, then it cannot be human trafficking or against their will because they “knew better”

Reality: Initial consent to commercial sex or a labour setting prior to acts of force, fraud, or coercion (or minor or victim who is mentally unsound) is not relevant to the crime, nor is payment.

Myth: Human trafficking involves moving, traveling or transporting a person across STATE OR NATIONAL BORDERS

Reality: Human trafficking is often confused with human smuggling, which involves illegal border crossings. In fact, the crime of human trafficking does not require any movement whatsoever. Victims can be recruited and trafficked in their own home towns, even their own homes.

Myth: Human trafficking only happens in ILLEGAL OR UNDERGROUND INDUSTRIES

Reality: Human trafficking cases have been reported and prosecuted in industries including restaurants, cleaning services, construction, factories and more.

Myth: Only UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS get trafficked

Reality: Many who are trafficked or survive human trafficking are documented and have the right to live and work in the locality of exploitation.

Myth: All human trafficking involves COMMERCIAL SEX

Reality: Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to get another person to provide labour or commercial sex. Worldwide, experts believe there are more situations of labour trafficking than of sex trafficking.

Myth: It’s always or usually a VIOLENT CRIME

Reality: By far the most pervasive myth about human trafficking is that it always – or often – involves kidnapping or otherwise physically forcing someone into a situation. In reality, most human traffickers use psychological means such as tricking, defrauding, manipulating or threatening victims into providing commercial sex or exploitative labour.

Trafficking victims can often suffer from serious physical abuse and physical exhaustion, as well as starvation. Typical injuries can include broken bones, concussion, bruising or burns, as well as other injuries consistent with assault. Some of these serious injuries can cause lasting health problems and may require long-term treatment as victims would have been subjected to multiple abuses over an extensive period of time.

Those who have been sexually exploited are often abused by their traffickers and customers. They may be raped, beaten, and subjected to abuse over a long period of time. There is also a higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, infections, diabetes, cancer, and other illnesses. A lack of proper medical care allows these conditions to spread and worsen—often affecting an individual’s health permanently.

Victims of forced labour may work in dangerous conditions for long hours doing repetitive tasks. They may also be exposed to dangerous contaminants or work with heavy equipment. As a result, many are subjected to serious infections, respiratory problems, injuries, impairments, and exhaustion.

Individuals who are trafficked can quickly become isolated and withdrawn from friends, family, and other social circles. This may be due to their personal feelings of guilt and shame or because they’ve relocated and now live far away from their community.

Some individuals who return home or escape their trafficking situation may be excluded from social groups due to a stigma they now face; they may be shunned by their family and friends and feel unloved and unwanted. Unfortunately, this isolation can make them vulnerable to being trafficked again or lead them to return to an abusive lifestyle.

As traffickers often dehumanise and objectify their victims, victims’ innate sense of power, visibility, and dignity often become obscured.

Due to such emotional and mental degradation, victims experience devastating psychological effects during and after their trafficking experience. Survivors may end up experiencing post-traumatic stress, difficulty in forming and maintaining relationships, depression, memory loss, anxiety, fear, guilt, shame, and other severe forms of mental trauma.

Fishing crews are generally overseen by a captain or boss. The captain or boss has a high financial stake in a profitable voyage, incentivizing abusive management practises including actual or threatened physical abuse (hitting, threats, or actual violence with weapons, denial of rest), verbal abuse (yelling, threats), and other forms of intimidation.

Around the world, approximately 26 million people work on coffee plantations every year. Men, women, and children labour in countries along the equator picking the beans that, through murky supply chains, eventually end up in your local grocery store or café. But inside the billions of cups of coffee consumed every day, the bitter taste of modern-day slavery goes largely unnoticed.

Most major brands have manufacturing plants in South East operating with low labour costs. Low production costs means low prices, allowing us to afford the branded goods and ignore the human costs.

Migrant workers are the fuel driving Malaysia’s electronics industry. Campaigners believe that up to 40% of Malaysia’s electronics workforce are migrant workers, a third of whom are undocumented.

In pockets of rural parts of the subcontinent, children are locked in shacks and forced to work between 10 to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week. Paid an average of $0.11 an hour, these children were sold to the trade in order to supplement their family’s income or to pay off inherited debt. 

Workers at rubber manufacturing facilities work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, in high temperature facilities. Lunch breaks are brief and sick days highly discouraged.

Hidden in some of the world’s most rural rainforests, palm oil plantations often depend on forced labour, benefiting from the impunity that comes with this invisibility.

Debt bondage occurs when a person is forced to work to pay off the loan incurred to obtain a job in Malaysia. They work for little or no pay, sometimes, with no control over their debt repayment. A lot of the money they earn goes to paying off their loan.

Not all human trafficking abuses happen in dingy and underground  establishments; sometimes they are quite common in high-end and reputable businesses as well. 

A lot of popular food establishments around the country close really late or stay open 24 hours for our benefit and late-night cravings. However, this often means that workers don’t really get time to sleep and, in some cases, less than 5 or 6 hours a day.

It is estimated that an average undocumented factory worker who manufactures luxury goods would have to work up to 1 year without incurring any other living costs such as food and rent to afford some of the products they make.

Lots of pedicurists and manicurists are recruited from small villages in South East Asia as young girls. They are often lured by high income job promises to help pay off family debts before being scuttled into small shop-lots where they spend a good chunk of their life polishing your nails to pay off their debt bondage.

To ensure workers keep working and not abscond; Malaysian employers hold on to their passport, thus giving these workers no choice when it comes to the basic human right of moving freely

Workers remain in low paying jobs because employers threaten to send them home.

Most victims of Human Trafficking in Malaysia hardly get time off. They often work 12 to 16hours a day, 7 days a week.

Whilst most of us at least have a room and ‘space’ for ourselves, most foreign labourer’s live in spaces not much bigger than a standard lift and in some cases have to share this space  with at least one or two other people.

It is common for victims to be deceived with the promise of comfortable or skilled jobs before being forced into the construction industry. Often, the reality does not match the promises and workers experience exploitative work conditions. Some experience so much trauma that they do not remember what was originally promised to them or what jobs they wanted to perform in the first place.

A big reason Malaysia is rife with Human Trafficking abuses is because ‘WE’ no longer want to do the jobs that are ‘DIRTY’, ‘DANGEROUS’ and ‘DEMEANING’. Thus providing workers who can do this has become a very profitable industry.

Not all traffickers look like Bond Villains. Sometimes they can look like your next door neighbour or high-end wedding planner who specialises in labour supply.

In some cases, contractors hire local gangs to police their migrant workforce and ensure everyone toes the line. Consequences can be dire if someone tries to speak up or complains about their plight. 

Living conditions on Malaysian Construction sites can be a human rights violation in itself. Poor safety, sanitation and cleanliness often lead to diseases, injuries and death amongst workers. However because everyone is very replaceable, there is no need for contractors to improve these conditions or keep the workforce happy.

Journeys of trafficking victims to Malaysia are often made possible by complicit government officials. Traffickers pay bribes at border crossings to ensure entry into the country.

Small scale renovations or construction jobs often use undocumented migrants or low waged workers. Contractors keep the overheads low and profits high by using every trick in the Forced Labour Guide Book.

Most construction sites house their workers in the construction site. Often in areas such as the parking lots, where make shift rooms are built with poor living conditions and sanitation. 

MYTH: Human Trafficking is an overseas probem

REALITY: Human Trafficking happens in nearly every single country around the world; and it’s most likely happening where you live.

Cultural and traditional practices such as black magic and voodoo have been used by traffickers against family members of victims to coerce them into sexual activity. This has been reported by victims from Africa

Female children or adults can be coerced or forced into the sex trafficking industry by the men in their families.

A  trend in parts of the Klang Valley at the moment is restaurants that offer ‘Entertainment’ rooms which function as sex rooms. Services that can be performed by ‘waitresses’ in sex rooms are often listed in plain sight on their menus.

The ‘Aquarium’ is a common feature at high end brothels/spas to allow for the Clients to exercise right judgment and make the best decision when it comes to picking the right girl for them.

Premises that have no signage or look abandoned often provide Traffickers with the perfect cover for their operations. These premises often either house or hold the victims where the sexual exploitation occurs

Sex Traffickers often entice their victims with legitimate job offers like Nursing before forcing the women into guest services at night clubs, massage parlors and/or prostitution.

Virgins are said to be able to improve a man’s virility and to be safe from diseases thus fetching anywhere between RM1000 to RM3000 for a session.

The ‘Air Con’ is said to give a cooling effect during fellatio. Most victims of sex trafficking are thought/told/forced to perform these extra services to ensure that their clientele is left satisfied with the service.