Blame country of human trafficking victims, not countries that receive them - Zahid

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has expressed his disappointment on the attitude of the international community that always blamed the countries that received human trafficking victims and not the source country that is the cause of the issue.

He said the international community claimed that these countries purportedly did not provide protection or any other form of assistance required by the victims.

"Many of the human trafficking syndicates are in the Bengal Bay (Bangladesh)," he told reporters after officiating the Assimilation of Noble Values during Ramadan event at Simpang Renggam Prison here on Friday night.

Hence he hoped the international community would stop making such assumptions through several resolutions passed at the ASEAN ministers emergency meeting held in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Ahmad Zahid said the meeting received the support from four member countries to coordinate heavier legal enforcement measures against human trafficking syndicates and agents.

The four countries are Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Meanwhile other countries would also give their full support to efforts against human trafficking and cross border crimes, he said.

He said among the legal enforcement measures to be taken would be from aspects of implementing the bio-metric (finger print) system on the victims besides imposing deterrent penalties on the agents and syndicates that brought these victims.

Ahmad Zahid attended the meetings as Malaysia's representative.