Washington DC: NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, today issued the following statement regarding reports that Malaysia will move from “Tier 3” to “Tier 2”:

We are shocked by reports that the U.S. State Department plans to upgrade Malaysia’s status to the “Tier 2 Watch List” on human trafficking. If true, this is nothing more than a crass, political ploy to circumvent U.S. legislative requirements that Tier 3 countries be barred from “fast track” trade deals. According to Sister Simone Campbell, NETWORK’s Executive Director, “This can only be seen as a cynical political action meant to bolster Malaysia’s trade status with the U.S. at the expense of countless human trafficking victims. Coming so soon after the discovery in May of almost 150 graves in Malaysian camps of trafficking victims, the State Department’s reported decision cannot be justified on any level.”

NETWORK has long warned that giving countries with poor human rights records preferred trade status with the U.S. will only undermine the work of those seeking to make this a more humane world. Trafficking human beings as if they were economic products is a horrific crime. Governments and our church have rightfully condemned the enslavement of these victims. Abolishment of human trafficking should be a high priority for all.

If the State Department does, in fact, upgrade Malaysia’s human trafficking status for trade purposes, it will undermine the work of human rights activists around the world.

We call on the administration to make sure this doesn’t happen. Malaysia must be held accountable for the human rights abuses within its borders.

As Pope Francis has said, human trafficking “constitutes a grave violation of the human rights of those victimized and is an offense against their dignity, as well as a defeat for the worldwide community. People of good will, whether or not they profess religious beliefs, must not allow these women, men and children to be treated as objects, to be deceived, raped, often sold and resold for various purposes, and in the end either killed or left devastated in mind and body, only to be finally thrown away or abandoned. It is shameful.” The U.S. government should listen and act accordingly.

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