Trafficking fears over drug case convictions
The details have emerged as an EU report released on European Anti-Trafficking Day reveals that between 2010 and 2012, 183 people were the victims of human trafficking in Ireland.
Of these, 38 were victims of labour exploitation; 132 were victims of sexual exploitation; and 13 victims of other forms of exploitation such as forced begging.
Forty-four women and girls were suspected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation here last year. A total of 28 traffickers were prosecuted over the three- year period.
The report was published as it emerged that gardaí are conducting an internal review of their decision not to identify Asian men convicted and serving prison sentences here for cannabis growing as victims of human trafficking.
The review, called Operation Fulcrum and being carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, follows a campaign by the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland which has raised concerns that as many as 24 Chinese and Vietnamese men are currently incarcerated, despite evidence they may have been trafficked.
Gráinne O’Toole of the rights centre, said more needed to be done to protect victims of trafficking.!
Det Insp Paul Molloy of the immigration bureau said that, while in some cases there may be indicators of human trafficking, there may also be strong evidence the person was involved in trafficking drugs. He added that in some of the cases, the potential victim had pleaded guilty to the cannabis cultivation charge.
In some of the cases, the court accepted that the “gardeners” were being held in virtual slavery or were indentured servants, but sentences of up to seven years were still handed down.
A barrister who represented some of the potential victims, Feargal Kavanagh, said Ireland is acting in breach of international obligations under the provisions of the European Convention on Human Trafficking and is failing to protect victims
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has signalled that she intends to make paying for sex a criminal offence.
As the law stands, it is illegal to solicit another person for sex but not to pay for it.
She said: “It is ironic isn’t it that it is not acceptable, legally, to buy drugs, and it is not acceptable to fuel the drug trade, but somehow there is an ambivalence about the purchase of sex from women — of buying women. It is an extraordinary reflection on our society, I believe.”
