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implies the Government does not fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards, but is making
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards and:

a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant
or is significantly increasing;
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms
of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or
c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into
compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country
to take additional future steps over the next year.

6.5 ASEAN migrant issues

5. ASEAN countries have recognized the importance of labour migration in the ASEAN
region. In January 2007, ASEAN made a significant move to address the problems of migrant
workers by adopting the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights
of Migrant Workers. The adoption of this declaration followed by the subsequent setting up
in 2008 of the ASEAN Committee in the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration
(ACMW) demonstrate ASEAN’s commitments to protect the rights of migrant workers.

6. ASEAN countries are to have the following obligations in:

(1) The protection of migrant workers from exploitation, discrimination, and violence;

(2) The governance of labour migration; and

(3) The fight against trafficking in persons.

7. Malaysia signed the ASEAN Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers 2017. The
ASEAN Consensus stipulates the general principles, fundamental rights of migrant workers
and members of their families, specific rights of migrant workers, obligations, and
commitments of ASEAN member states. It aims to establish a framework for closer
cooperation among member states on addressing migrant workers’ issues in the region.
However, it is a non-legally binding document.

6.6 Access to justice

8. Access to justice is a basic fundamental human right for all persons regardless of their
citizenship or immigration status. Foreign workers face numerous barriers in accessing the
administrative legal system provided by the labour laws and the civil and criminal justice
systems in Malaysia.

9. The present administrative and legal framework of foreign workers contribute to the
inability of FWs to access justice (e.g. the cancellation of work permits in the event of a

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