(July 29): Malaysia's rating in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report can have an effect on its citizens' visa requirements to enter the United States, The Star reported today.

US Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun was reported as saying that Malaysia's weaknesses in combating human trafficking would impact its attempts to be included in the US Visa Waiver Programme (VWP), which allows for travel to the US without a visa.

"Considering a totality of whether a country should be included in the Visa Waiver Programme, I would say yes," Yun was quoted as saying by the daily.

"If you have a big trafficking issue, that speaks to vulnerabilities of the candidate country."

The Star reported that among the conditions for inclusion into the VWP were agreements on exchange of criminal and terrorist information, machine-readable passports and reporting of lost and stolen passports to Interpol.

Yun was previously reported as saying that Malaysia had already met some of the conditions and was close to sealing the deal.

“We are making decent progress. I hope some time next year we’ll get there," he was quoted as saying by The Star today.

In the TIP report released on Monday, Malaysia was upgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 2, despite calls by human rights groups and nearly 180 US lawmakers to keep the Southeast Asian country on a list of worst offenders in failing to suppress trafficking.

Malaysia's expected upgrade to so-called "Tier 2 Watch List" status removes a potential barrier to President Barack Obama's signature 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP.

Congress had approved legislation in June giving Obama expanded trade negotiating powers, but prohibiting deals with Tier 3 countries such as Malaysia.

It was reported that 160 members of the US House of Representatives and 18 US Senators wrote US Secretary of State John Kerry urging him keep Malaysia on Tier 3, saying they had seen no justification for an upgrade and questioning whether it was motivated by a desire to keep Malaysia in the TPP.

The US ambassador, however, rejected these claims, saying that instead, the upgrade was a "technical thing" and was based on Malaysia's significant efforts to eliminate trafficking.

“It has nothing to do with trade,” he was reported as saying.

He added: "Tier 2 watch list is far from a clean bill of health."

The upgrade follows international scrutiny and outcry over Malaysian efforts to combat human trafficking after the discovery in May of scores of graves in people-smuggling camps near its northern border with Thailand.

“Malaysia was forthcoming in leading the regional response," Yun said, adding that despite Malaysia's efforts, he was hoping to see the conviction rate, which had gone down, to improve. – The Malaysian Insider