THE Malaysian Bar commends the government’s recent ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Forced Labour Convention, known as Protocol 29 (P29), on March 21. This ratification, which was preceded by the National Action Plan on Forced Labour (NAPFL) 2021-2025 and launched on Nov 26, 2021 by the government, is testament of our country’s determination to resolve and end forced labour.
The strong position taken by the government is a much-needed declaration on the pressing need to eliminate forced labour, especially in light of the eight Withhold Release Orders (WROs) issued by the United States Customs and Border Protection from 2019 to 2022, which prohibited the importation of merchandise mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part in Malaysia by, inter alia, forced labour.
