Latest news with #humanTrafficking
Malay Mail
2 days ago
- Malay Mail
Is KLIA ‘counter setting' a symptom of deeper migrant exploitation? — Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid
JULY 28 — The recent detention of an enforcement officer at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 has renewed public scrutiny over a clandestine practice known as 'counter setting'. This tactic, where individuals are allowed to bypass formal immigration procedures, raises serious concerns not only regarding border security and official corruption but also about structural vulnerabilities in Malaysia's migration management, labour demands, and institutional accountability. Last November, nearly 50 immigration officers were reassigned following investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) into a similar syndicate operating at KLIA. A senior immigration officer, believed to be the mastermind behind the network, is expected to face charges over a human trafficking ring that allegedly facilitated the unlawful entry of foreign nationals without immigration clearance. The act of 'counter-setting' which involves corruption at borders is a well-recognised enabler of both human trafficking and migrant smuggling. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identifies bribery and abuse of power as systemic 'pull factors' that facilitate transnational crime. In this context, 'counter setting' is not just negligence, it is an institutional gateway for illicit entry under the guise of administrative authority. However, criminalising rogue officers should not automatically lead to the assumption that all individuals who passed through these compromised checkpoints are victims of trafficking or knowingly complicit in smuggling. Immigration Department officers inspecting passports of foreign visitors at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in this file photo taken on July 3, 2023. — Bernama pic Trafficking vs. smuggling: Distinct legal frameworks Public discourse frequently conflates 'migration', 'trafficking', and 'smuggling', an issue compounded by certain NGO and academic narratives that generalise irregular movement as either criminal or victimhood, obscuring nuanced legal distinctions. Under both the UN Trafficking Protocol (Palermo Protocol) and Malaysia's Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 (ATIPSOM), human trafficking consists of three essential elements: act (e.g., recruitment, transportation), means (e.g., coercion, fraud, abuse of power), and purpose (e.g., exploitation such as forced labour or sexual servitude). However, ATIPSOM does not clearly criminalise attempts to traffic nor does it automatically recognise someone as a trafficked person simply because they entered the country irregularly. As studies has established, most trafficking victims enter Malaysia legally which means that they are in possession of valid passport and are even given a 30-day visa free entry if they are from South-east Asian countries. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to establish the key component of 'exploitation' unless it is evidently demonstrated at the border entry. Mere facilitation without evidence of exploitation does not constitute trafficking. By contrast, migrant smuggling involves consensual facilitation of unlawful entry in exchange for financial gain. Once the border is crossed, the smuggling transaction ends. In such cases, the migrant is typically treated as an offender who have breached immigration laws. An individual's status only becomes 'irregular' if immigration officers on arrival fail to stamp or process their entry. This administrative omission does not by itself amount to criminal conduct or evidence of trafficking. This brings us to a critical question: how can authorities establish that the individuals who entered via 'counter setting' were trafficked, smuggled, or simply irregular migrants? Without evidence of coercion or exploitation, these individuals remain at best suspects or irregular entrants. As many of us has experienced, it is extremely difficult for individuals to board international flights to Malaysia without valid travel documents. Multiple layers of checks include immigration clearance at the point of departure, airline document verification, and pre-boarding checks by flight crew. This may not necessarily be the case when entering Malaysia through land. For example, Malaysia's land borders especially in areas such as Rantau Panjang, Sungai Golok, and Wang Kelian are far more porous. In Wang Kelian, a one-kilometre 'no man's land' separates Thai and Malaysian posts, making unsupervised crossings possible. Arrests involving undocumented Myanmar nationals and the unregulated movement of Malaysians into Thailand highlight systemic gaps in surveillance and border management. Labour agents and recruitment networks Malaysia's fluctuating labour policies such as the temporary freeze (and subsequent lifting) on the intake of Bangladeshi workers for example, have created a market of desperation. To fulfil recruitment contracts or avoid refunding fees, unscrupulous agents may resort to corrupt arrangements with enforcement personnel to smuggle workers into the country. One major concern is the licensing regime. In Malaysia, work agents are not required to possess individual licences. Licences are tied to agencies, creating a regulatory blind spot. Some agents operate without registration; others exploit legal platforms while engaging in parallel black-market operations. Disturbingly, many such agents are foreign nationals already residing in Malaysia, which helps them gain the trust of vulnerable migrant communities. Upon arrival, many of these migrants are placed in overcrowded accommodation and squalid conditions. They are also subjected to long hours of work, meagre pay, and minimal legal protection. While exploitative, these conditions do not always rise to the legal threshold of trafficking unless all the trafficking elements are clearly present. Malaysia must move beyond reactive enforcement and address the systemic factors that enable counter setting and migration-related abuse. A rights-based and reform-oriented strategy should include: stricter employer vetting procedures and meaningful penalties for labour exploitation; crackdowns on unlicensed and unscrupulous agents, including those operating under legal facades; enhance institutional oversight across border enforcement agencies to prevent corruption; implement a victim-centred approach that treats irregular entrants as potential victims unless complicity is proven; and ratify the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. As a conclusion, it is evident that the KLIA 'counter setting' scandal is not just about corrupt officers, it exposes systemic cracks in Malaysia's migration governance, labour recruitment processes, and institutional safeguards. While prosecuting offenders is necessary, structural reforms must follow to protect migrants' rights and preserve the integrity of our borders. To strike a balance between national security and human dignity, Malaysia must clearly distinguish between 'victims', 'offenders', and 'irregular migrants' and, above all, recognise the human realities behind each case. *Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid is a Criminologist and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. She can be reached at [email protected] **This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
CTV News
6 days ago
- CTV News
Guelph Police have made at least 25 arrests related to intimate partner violence so far this year
The Guelph Police Service said investments in addressing intimate partner violence and human trafficking are paying off in the Royal City. According to a news release Wednesday, police have received more than 800 calls related to intimate partner violence in the first six months of the year and have made more than 25 arrests since January. In one case, officers travelled to Belleville to make an arrest. As for human trafficking, police said they have responded to more than 30 related calls for service this year. This comes after Mayor Cam Guthrie recommended the police service increase its 2025 budget request by $250,000 to enhance the Intimate Partner Violence and Human Trafficking Unit. 'While we acknowledge there is still much more to be done to address intimate partner violence and human trafficking in our community, the achievements in the first half of this year clearly demonstrate the value of strategic investments,' Police Chief Gord Cobey said. 'We remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring victims and survivors receive the supports required and that offenders are held accountable.'
New York Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Britain Moves to Curb Migrant Trafficking, and Ease Anger at Home
British authorities on Wednesday imposed sanctions on more than a dozen people and organizations suspected of smuggling migrants into Britain, cutting them off from the country's financial system and barring them from entering. It was the first use of a new legal authority aimed at disrupting the human-trafficking networks run by gangs and organized-crime syndicates that transport desperate migrants into the country. The migrants' journeys often conclude with the dangerous crossing of the English Channel in small, rickety boats. It was also the latest attempt by Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government to confront growing political anger about the rising number of migrants trying to cross the channel. While overall migration, including foreign students and workers, is down, the number of migrants arriving in small boats has spiked to about 42,000 this year as of June 30 — a 34 percent increase over the same period last year. The British Foreign Office said the 25 people and criminal organizations targeted on Wednesday had been supplying the small boats, producing fake passports and specializing in moving money outside traditional financial networks to facilitate the illegal movement of people. Among them were a person who the government said ran safe houses along the smuggling routes and seven people reported to be involved with the Kavac Gang, a Balkan-based group that it said created fake passports. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, has called the crackdown part of the country's moral duty to stop the crossings. 'From Europe to Asia, we are taking the fight to the people smugglers who enable irregular migration, targeting them wherever they are in the world and making them pay for their actions,' he said in a statement Wednesday morning. 'My message to the gangs who callously risk vulnerable lives for profit is this: We know who you are, and we will work with our partners around the world to hold you to account.' Mr. Starmer's Labour government has been under increasing pressure since he promised during his campaign to reduce the flow of illegal migration. Small boats account for only about 5 percent of overall immigration into Britain, but the images of migrants jumping off the boats onto the beaches have become a potent political issue. Conservative politicians and their supporters have seized on the growing presence of migrants to attack the prime minister. In Epping, a town at the edge of London, several angry protests erupted in recent weeks after an Ethiopian migrant living in a hotel was charged with sexual assault. It was the latest in a series of protests in Britain about hotels catering to migrants. Chris Philp, the member of Parliament who speaks for the Conservative Party on migration issues, called the sanctions an ineffective and insufficient response and said the government should immediately deport anyone arriving in the small boats. 'The truth is you don't stop the channel crossings by freezing a few bank accounts in Baghdad or slapping a travel ban on a dinghy dealer in Damascus,' Mr. Philp said. 'Swaths of young men are arriving daily, in boats bought online, guided by traffickers who laugh at our laws and cash in on our weakness.' Advocates for migrants welcomed the new efforts on trafficking, in part because they target traffickers and not migrants themselves. But they cautioned that the relatively modest sanctions would probably do little to dissuade people desperate to leave their homes. 'The men, women and children risking their lives in small boats are often fleeing places like Sudan, where war has left them with nowhere else to turn,' said Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, a British-based organization that works with refugees and asylum seekers. 'People do not cross the channel,' he said, 'unless what lies behind them is more terrifying than what lies ahead.' British officials said the new sanctions were part of a broader effort to return more migrants to their home countries if they do not qualify for asylum or refugee status. Since Mr. Starmer's election last summer, the British government has returned 35,000 migrants, according to the Foreign Office, an increase of 13 percent over the previous year. This month, Mr. Starmer announced an agreement with President Emmanuel Macron of France to bolster enforcement to prevent the small boats with migrants from leaving French beaches in the first place. But migration experts say all of Mr. Starmer's efforts face significant challenges and may have little impact on the flow of people. Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, said that many smuggling networks operated almost entirely in other countries, outside British jurisdiction, where the sanctions would have little real-world impact. He also said that Mr. Starmer's promise to 'smash' the gangs would be difficult to fulfill because the groups rely heavily on middlemen working in the informal money-transfer network known as Hawala, which operates outside traditional financial systems. Mr. Walsh said many countries, including Pakistan and India, had tried to combat the middlemen without much success. 'The gangs are pretty difficult to smash,' Mr. Walsh said. 'They are highly decentralized. They are highly adaptive.'
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Yahoo
Chilling video allegedly shows illegal migrant dragging screaming sex trafficking victim back to captivity
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways Chilling surveillance shows the moment an illegal migrant from Honduras carries a screaming Chinese migrant woman back to a Houston trailer home where she was allegedly being held captive for days as a sex slave. The terrifying footage shows illegal migrant Jose Armando Carcamo-Perdomo carrying the hysterical victim off her feet in a bear-hug style grip as she tries to kick and wrangle her way free. Authorities said she was held at the trailer home without food and water inside a closet. In the video, the women can be heard screaming frantically while a dog at a fence barks loudly at them. Police were alerted to the trailer home after a neighbor saw the woman running down the street before a man grabbed her and carried her back screaming. Illegal migrant Jose Perdoma is accused of holding a Chinese migrant captive Texas Woman Arrested For Allegedly Smuggling Illegal Immigrants Hidden Inside Box Truck The Harris County Sheriff's Office said that the woman was transported from New York to Texas on the promise of new masseuse job that paid more cash. But that hope descended into horror when she was instead held tied up for more than five days, had her Chinese passport taken and sexually assaulted several times. "There was a small closet with a piece of wood across the door that was screwed into the frame," Lt. John Klafka, chief of the adult special crimes unit at the Harris County Sheriff's Office told Fox News. "They were able to rip that piece of wood off and open the door. It had been tied up. She had some type of object like a sock or something that was used to bound her hands." Read On The Fox News App Carcamo-Perdomo was arrested on July 14 and has been charged with kidnapping and assault. Alleged Human Smugglers Arrested In Texas After Hiding Migrants Inside Hollowed Hay Bales He entered the country illegally in 2020 from Honduras was given a notice to appear after a traffic stop, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But in 2023, an immigration judge decided to dismiss the case. "This heinous criminal illegal alien was freely roaming our interior and terrorizing American communities," DHS said in an X response to the incident. "Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is working day and night to remove the MILLIONS of illegal aliens in our interior. LAW AND ORDER WILL PREVAIL!" The lieutenant in charge of that investigation says he believes this is part of a much larger traffic ring that they're now investigating in Harris County. Klafka told Kprc 2 that the victim is safe in an undisclosed location and is receiving counseling and medical care. In a statement, the migrant's attorney said Carcamo is "shocked by the serious allegations" brought forth against him and "firmly maintains his complete innocence." "We remind the public that under the United States Constitution, every individual is entitled to the presumption of innocence, the right to due process, and a fair trial," the statement reads. "We expect law enforcement, the State of Texas, and the judicial system to honor these fundamental rights without prejudice or assumption. Original article source: Chilling video allegedly shows illegal migrant dragging screaming sex trafficking victim back to captivity
South China Morning Post
22-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
Ex-Cathay employee arrested in Hong Kong for alleged human trafficking role
A former customer services officer with Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific has been arrested and remanded in custody after spending more than 15 years on the run for allegedly accepting bribes to help a human trafficking syndicate smuggle travellers overseas. Former Cathay employee Tsui Ying-kit, 44, was escorted to West Kowloon Court on Tuesday afternoon to face four counts of conspiracy for an agent to accept advantages. According to a charge sheet, the defendant conspired with two then-colleagues and others to ensure an unspecified number of travellers could check in for their flights and go through security checks in return for financial rewards between September 2008 and August 2009. The document did not provide the nationalities of the travellers concerned. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement that Tsui had accepted bribes of HK$1,000 (US$127) to HK$2,000 for each request made by the syndicate. Tsui had been placed on the wanted list since failing to report to ICAC in October 2009. He was arrested after returning to Hong Kong on Monday, according to the anti-corruption watchdog.
