Shatter considers extending laws on labour abuses

THE forced labour of workers and immigrants is under scrutiny as Justice Minister Alan Shatter considers laws to criminalise abuses.

Officials in the trafficking unit of his department are analysing cases including the alleged mistreatment of domestic servants by some embassies, as well as coerced and organised begging on streets among the Roma community.

Forced labour is not a specific criminal offence and Mr Shatter will decide whether to extend legislation to cover exploitative behaviours.

Gardaí recently gave his department details of suspected cases of forced labour and exploitation.

Campaigners want the act of forced labour to be made a standalone offence, as opposed to one connec-ted to human trafficking under current law.

The Irish Examiner has learned that a Garda investigation on the issue has revealed the extent of concerns.

These include allegations that some non-Western embassies in Ireland have exploited and underpaid Asian domestic servants.

Gardaí have also looked at a large number of “gypsy gangs”, according to a senior Garda source, while there are concerns about groups of Romanians organising begging and coercing vulnerable immigrants to collect cash.

Claims of exploitation against trawler workers and withholding of pay in Irish waters were also documented but gardaí said these were more a civil issue than a criminal one.

“There is a huge gypsy network that might be run by criminals,” said a Garda source. “That’s a prominent issue. In general, it’s the odd case, nothing like the UK’s cockle pickers.”

More than 20 Chinese cockle pickers died in Morecambe Bay in Britain in 2004.

The Migrants Rights Centre Ireland, which has investigated over 160 cases of forced labour in the past six years, says the bar is set too high in legislation on trafficking, which Mr Shatter says can be used to prosecute work abuses.

“The other problem is cases go beyond labour law rules. It can be about keeping a person in the workplace through fear, violence or psychological abuse,” said project leader Gráinne O’Toole.

“People have been brought from Vietnam to the UK to here and promised restaurant work and then brought to cannabis houses and told if they don’t tend to the plants, they’ll be killed.”

Mr Shatter had told the Dáil prior to the winter break he was considering a new law: “The results of the [Garda] analysis are currently being examined in my department so that any legislative and administrative measures required to address deficiencies can be identified.”