Illegal trafficking highlighted as children referred to health board

AT least six suspected victims of children trafficking were referred to the care of the East Coast Area Health Board last year.

The referrals, from the Garda National Immigration Bureau, were in relation to suspected trafficking of children for exploitation or unknown purposes. Countries of origin of these cases included Nigeria, South Africa and Romania.

A statement from the ECAHB said the issue was highlighted in its annual report as it was “a slight increase on the previous year and the service is acutely aware of the possibility of this occurring from the experiences of other countries.” The board was unable to provide the previous year’s figures. It also emerged in the annual report that asylum-seeking children in the east of the country receive a sub-standard level of care compared with Irish children in care.

A total of 863 children were referred during 2002, ranging from 17 years to four months, the majority from Nigeria. Trends within the referral rates showed a continuing increase in the numbers of children under the age of 15 and a greater percentage of children coming to join family members here.

The report also identified “increasingly complex needs” among new arrivals and those already in care. Because of this, it said that, despite a 21% reduction in referrals in 2002, “the staff and care resources allocated to meet the needs of these children neither reflects this complexity of need nor bears any comparison to that provided for children in care whose families live in Ireland.” This discrepancy, the report said, was in breach of the Child Care Act 1991, under which all children are entitled to the same standard of service.

The report warned the current level of service provision is largely dependent on the goodwill of staff but that “the level of stress caused by excessive working hours, in addition to the knowledge that the services are not of the required standard, is totally unacceptable and service delivery cannot be sustained in these circumstances.”

The service providers have called for an urgent examination of their problems which include the non-filling of staff posts during the year; considerable delays in issuing medical cards; a serious shortfall in the provision of foster placements for younger children and inappropriate care placements for teenagers, with the majority of these children continuing to be placed in hostels designed for adults.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ECAHB said services had seen enormous growth over the last number of years, “providing the board with significant challenges in meeting the needs of this vulnerable group”.