The following is the Malaysia section of the 'Trafficking in Persons Report 2009' released by the US State Department today.

Malaysia is a destination and, to a lesser extent, a source and transit country for women and children trafficked for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, and for men, women, and children trafficked for the purpose of forced labour.

Malaysia is mainly a destination country for men, women, and children who migrate willingly from Indonesia, Nepal, Thailand, China, the Philippines, Burma, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Vietnam for work – usually legal, contractual labour – and are subsequently subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in the domestic, agricultural, food service, construction, plantation, industrial, and fisheries sectors.

Some foreign women and girls are also victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Some migrant workers are victimised by their employers, employment agents, or traffickers who supply migrant labourers and victims of sex trafficking.

Some victims suffer conditions including physical and sexual abuse, forced drug use, debt bondage, non-payment of wages, threats, confinement, and withholding of travel documents to restrict their freedom of movement.

Some female migrants from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Mongolia, and China are forced into prostitution after being lured to Malaysia with promises of legitimate employment.

Individual employment agents, which are sometimes used as fronts for human trafficking, sold women and girls into brothels, karaoke bars, or passed them to sex traffickers.