Demographics of Malaysia
The demographics of Malaysia are represented by the multiple ethnic groups that exist in the country. Malaysia's population, according to the 2010 census, is 28,334,000 including non-citizens, which makes it the 42nd most populated country in the world. Of these, 5.72 million live in East Malaysia and 22.5 million live in Peninsular Malaysia. The population distribution is uneven, with some 79% of its citizens concentrated in Peninsular Malaysia, which has an area of , constituting under 40% of the total area of Malaysia.
Human trafficking in Malaysia
Malaysia made some efforts to prevent trafficking in persons over the last year. The government conducted numerous anti-trafficking training events for Malaysian police, immigration, prosecutors, labour department officials, and Women’s ministry officials, and began to partner with NGOs, international organisations, and foreign governments on such training. In November 2009, the government launched an anti-trafficking public awareness campaign that included advertisements in print media, on the radio, and on television, including television appearances by senior government officials to discuss human trafficking. In March 2010, the government launched a five-year action plan to combat trafficking. The government began to use its “999” emergency number as a trafficking hotline where calls are routed to the Malaysian Police, though calls can only be taken in Malay and English. The Women’s Ministry produced pamphlets to potential trafficking victims in nine languages, which the Immigration Department began to distribute. The Indonesian and Malaysian governments have yet to amend or replace a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) covering the employment of Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia, which authorises Malaysian employers to confiscate and hold the passports of domestic employees, though negotiations to do so continued through the reporting period. According to the United States, Malaysia is not doing enough to curtail human trafficking. In June 2014 in its annual "Trafficking in Persons" report, the United States said it had lowered Malaysia's ranking to Tier 3, the lowest grade possible.