DeLauro, Doggett, Grayson, Slaughter, Sherman, Lee Ask For State IG Investigation into Malaysia Trafficking Upgrade

Statement

Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Alan Grayson (D-FL), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Barbara Lee today asked the State Department Inspector General (IG) for an investigation into Malaysia's upgrade in the latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Malaysia was upgraded to the Tier 2 Watch List from Tier 3 in the TIP Report, although the country has failed to make substantive improvements in combating trafficking.

Under the Trade Promotion Authority law Congress passed in June, Tier 3 countries are excluded from trade agreements expedited by Congress, including the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

"Just one year ago, the TIP Report demoted Malaysia from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3, among the worst offenders, after repeatedly failing to make progress on human trafficking enforcement and legislative efforts," they wrote. "The downgrade for Malaysia in the 2014 TIP Report was automatically applied after four years of consistently making no attempt to address the well documented human trafficking epidemic. 2014 was the third instance in seven years that Malaysia had fallen to the lowest ranking in the Report.

"Over the course of the past year, numerous reports by independent nongovernmental organizations and the media underscore the continued failure of Malaysia's government to make efforts to comply with the TVPA [Trafficking Victims Protection Act]'s minimum standards. In addition, the Malaysia trafficking convictions actually decreased between 2013 and 2014. As recently as April 2015, the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia, Joseph Yun, publically highlighted the lack of political will by Malaysian authorities in protecting the victims of trafficking and prosecuting traffickers."