Analysis of Cross-border Forced Labour And Labour Trafficking In Malaysia

Rights Lab project lead: Todd Landman
Funder: International Justice Mission (IJM)
Duration: June 2024 to September 2025
Programme: Measurement and Geographies

This project will provide a robust and systematic prevalence estimation of forced labour trafficking among cross-border migrants in Malaysia. The project phases comprise a scoping review and formative assessment, field mission to Malaysia, and working in partnership with Ipsos Malaysia, the implementation of a linked-trace sample (LTS) driven survey instrument to measure vulnerability to trafficking and reliance on the justice system. The project addresses the complexity of labour demand, multinational migration from Indonesia, India, Nepal, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, The Philippines, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, the changing legal and policy landscape, the willingness of migrants to access justice, and statistical methods for estimating hard to find populations. Malaysia is the world’s 36^th largest economy and has an estimated migrant population of between 1.7 million and 3.1 million. The Rights Lab Prevalence Estimation Team will work closely with IJM Malaysia and Ipsos Malaysia to deliver the prevalence estimate and justice reliance data.