THREE organised human trafficking syndicates were crippled and 55 victims of forced labour, sexual exploitation and job scam rackets were rescued last year, says Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (pic).
The Home Minister said the ministry is stepping up efforts to combat human trafficking through tighter controls at the country’s entry points with coordinated operations by the police, Immigration Department, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and Border Control and Protection Agency.
“These agencies have intensified detection and enforcement from initial checks at airports and ports to monitoring our waters and land borders,” he said in a parliamentary written reply.
The minister said a total of 145 human trafficking cases were investigated last year involving 274 arrests and 477 rescued victims.
Another key milestone, he added, was resolving the Wang Kelian mass graves case with five individuals sentenced to five years’ jail.
On errant officers, he said the government would not tolerate any enforcement personnel found to be negligent or colluding with syndicates.
“Firm action will be taken through thorough criminal investigations and appropriate disciplinary measures,” he said.
He was responding to Aminolhuda Hassan (PH-Sri Gading) who asked about the ministry’s achievements in crippling human trafficking syndicates, particularly at the country’s entry points and action taken against officers involved or negligent in allowing syndicates to operate.
On another matter, Saifuddin Nasution said a total of 42 deaths in custody were recorded last year.
He said the figure comprised eight cases in prison and 34 under police care, including 22 deaths while under police detention and 12 in police lock-ups.
Investigations found the cases were mainly due to health factors such as heart attack, stroke and complications from chronic illnesses, he added.
“To ensure transparency, every death in custody is thoroughly investigated by the police, including carrying out post-mortems, internal inquiries and where misconduct is suspected, it would be referred to the Independent Police Conduct Commission,” he said in a written reply to Hassan Abdul Karim (PH-Pasir Gudang) who asked about the recent number of deaths involving suspects in police lock-ups and inmates in prison, and the measures taken to prevent such incidents.
Saifuddin Nasution said the ministry has tightened standard operating procedures for lock-ups and prisons, improved health screening and monitoring of detainees and inmates, boosted integrity and detainee-handling training for enforcement personnel and expanded the use of CCTV with regular compliance audits.
