An unfortunate drawback of increasing maritime trade and economic globalisation is that it facilitates expansion and intensity of transnational crime involving immigrants as the maritime means is both cheap and provides inconspicuous movement of humans. In Malaysia, the growing seaborne transborder human trafficking problem has brought to stark attention the problem of effective maritime governance and border control, presenting a serious challenge and increased pressure on agencies tasked with policing Malaysian seas. Strengthening border security through greater maritime surveillance, security operations and improving technology is vital in dealing with this non traditional security challenge but is unfortunately, inadequate in ending the crime which is showing trends of escalation especially in view of the global economic crisis. As human trafficking is a multi dimension issue and inextricably linked to migration and human rights, addressing the structural factors, namely push and pull factors, is pertinent. Key to bolstering Malaysia's security lies in sound economic and investment policies to discourage influx of illegals and introducing an effective migration framework that also addressed demands for cheap labour, migrant exploitation and public corruption which are fuelling trafficking.

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