State urged to reconsider bill over trafficking
Cork Labour TD Ciarán Lynch urged the Taoiseach to ensure the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill being piloted through the Oireachtas was amended in light of the news.
Mr Lynch accused the Government of failing to aid victims of sex trafficking by including protection measures for them in the new bill and said that offering specific protection was vital.
The Dáil intervention came after the report that four women in the Cork area, who are victims of sex trafficking, are being kept in hiding and that there may be 200 such women throughout the country who are being detained in a brutal fashion.
Mr Lynch claimed that Justice Minister Brian Lenihan viewed the legislation in an “extremely confined way”. “It does not seem to include any provisions relating to victim or witness protection,” he told fellow deputies.
He urged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to reconsider the proposed law and put in place more support for victims to come forward and expose the trade.
Mr Ahern agreed that some of the points raised were valid, but said they should be hammered-out as the bill goes through its committee stage.
Mr Lynch said this ultimately meant that the supports required in protecting victims of sex trafficking so urgently needed within the Human Trafficking Bill would remain delayed.
“My concern is the absence of victim protection measure clearly undermines the purposes of the Human Trafficking Bill.
“For some time now it has been consistently and well-stated by those working to combat this crime that the necessary supports afforded by putting in place. Victim protection systems have to be rolled out concurrently with the bill to make it effective,” he said.
The Cork Sexual Violence Centre is helping the four women and is hoping to help more to escape their plight.
