Gardaí go back to college to spot people traffickers
A special course to help members of the force spot victims of trafficking was piloted at the Garda College in Templemore last year.
Up to 50 gardaí — mainly from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) — completed training.
A second round of gardaí have just begun training and a number of international police forces have been involved at the Garda College, including Romanian police, the PSNI and the head of Britain’s Human Trafficking Centre.
Gardaí have investigated cases of suspected trafficking from Romania, one which involved a young female brought here for an arranged marriage.
Weak areas seen as susceptible to trafficking include Louth and other border counties as well as the Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland.
Nationalities most prone to traffickers include Romanians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Nigerians as well as Malaysians, say gardaí.
Last month, Nigerian lawyer Olaitan Ilori was jailed for four years for trafficking 12 Mauritian nationals into Ireland.
Gardaí instructing anti-trafficking skills in Templemore trained abroad in Brussels and Budapest, observing other police forces in action.
It is hoped at least one officer in each of the 109 garda districts will be trained in the techniques, which include identifying vulnerable woman.
Officers will also be stationed at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airport as well as ports including Rosslare.
A BBC investigation two weeks ago suggested Ireland was being used as a transit country to Britain by Bulgarians trafficking children.
Gardaí have no official figures for how many people are trafficked into Ireland. The crime is relatively new here, stressed GNIB superintendent John O’Driscoll.
“We’re a small country only with a recent boom in immigration. There are no signs that this is a major problem but as other European countries have recognised it, there is the potential for it here.”
nwww.garda.ie/angarda/gnib.html
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