Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 · Updated to 30 Sep 2025 · Part IV · Enforcement
40. Tipping-off
Official textFrom Laws of Malaysia Online, unchanged
Any person who—
knows or has reasonable grounds to suspect that an enforcement officer is acting, or is proposing to act, in connection with an investigation which is being, or
Anti-Trafficking in Persons and
Anti-Smuggling of Migrants 39
is about to be, conducted under or for the purposes of this Act and discloses to any other person information or any other matter which is likely to prejudice that investigation or proposed investigation; or
knows or has reasonable grounds to suspect that a disclosure has been made to an enforcement officer under this Act and discloses to any other person information or any other matter which is likely to prejudice any investigation which might be conducted following the disclosure, commits an offence.
Nothing in subsection (1) makes it an offence for an advocate and solicitor or his employee to disclose any information or other matter—
to his client or the client’s representative in connection with the giving of advice to the client in the course and for the purpose of the professional employment of the advocate and solicitor; or
to any person in contemplation of, or in connection with and for the purpose of, any legal proceedings.
Subsection (2) does not apply in relation to any information or other matter which is disclosed with a view to furthering any illegal purpose.
In a proceedings against a person for an offence under this section, it is a defence to prove that—
he did not know or suspect that the disclosure made under paragraph (1)(b) was likely to prejudice the investigation;
or
he had lawful authority or reasonable excuse for making the disclosure.
Terms defined in s 2
enforcement officer
Defined · s 2“enforcement officer” means any officer specified in subsection 27(1) or any public officer appointed under subsection 27(1a);
smuggling of migrants
Defined · s 2“smuggling of migrants” means— (a) arranging, facilitating or organizing, directly or indirectly, a person’s unlawful entry into or through, or unlawful exit from, any country of which the person is not a citizen or permanent resident either knowing or having reason to believe that the person’s entry or exit is unlawful; and (b) recruiting, conveying, transferring, concealing, harbouring or providing any other assistance or service for the purpose of carrying out the acts referred to in paragraph (a);
trafficking in persons
Defined · s 2“trafficking in persons” means all actions of recruiting, conveying, transferring, acquiring, maintaining, harbouring, providing or receiving, a person, for the purpose of exploitation, by the following means: (a) threat or use of force or other forms of coercion; (b) abduction; (c) fraud; (d) deception; (e) abuse of power; (f) abuse of the position of vulnerability of a person to an act of trafficking in persons; or (g) the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control over the trafficked person;
Part V
Part VI