- 期刊
Sex Trafficking in Malaysia: Repositioning the Trafficked Victim and Victim Protection Mechanism
摘要
Most of the literature on sex trafficking in Malaysia - reported either in Malay or English - revolves around the complexities in combating human trafficking or on women's vulnerability and susceptibility of being trafficked. However, very little literature is based on systematic qualitative data on the (in)efficacy of the current victim protection policies. This article examines the current victim protection mechanisms for trafficking victims in Malaysia and seeks to identify its flaws and weaknesses. It provides an analysis on the literature of sex trafficking and demonstrates the contradictory approaches taken by the Malaysian government in assisting women who have been sexually trafficked. It shows how state agencies project trafficked women to be helpless and in need of assistance, but depict them as 'immoral' individuals who need to be 'rescued' and detained in shelters. It also shows how government institutions have effectively denied women's agency through its anti-trafficking laws, and highlights the continuum of harm experienced by women throughout the trafficking and post-trafficking stage. The paper concludes that the notion of 'protection' is used as a euphemism for state control, and that women experience a variety of harm from multiple actors including state institutions that are supposed to protect them.