Human trafficking cases ‘tip of iceberg’
Figures provided by Justice Minister Alan Shatter show gardaí investigated four cases of trafficking of children in the nine months to the end of September compared to 23 last year.
In response to a written Dáil question by independent TD Denis Naughten, Mr Shatter said gardaí are currently investigating 31 cases of human trafficking. Four have been completed. The figures show while the number of investigations is at a higher rate this year at 31 for the nine months compared to 37 for all of last year, the total is low compared to 48 in 2012.
The rate of investigations has decreased sharply since 2010 — with 57 cases in 2011 and 78 in 2010. During each of those two years, 19 children were suspected victims of child trafficking.
Mr Naughten said despite the apparent falloff in the number of investigations, the horror of trafficking of children for sexual or labour exploitation goes on unnoticed.
“The practice of trafficking is modern day slavery and while the gardaí have successfully prosecuted some of those involved in the trafficking of children, more needs to be done. Our laws on the protection of children against sexual abuse and exploitation, including exploitation through prostitution and child pornography, need to be updated.
“We also need to ensure an important international agreement on Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography which Ireland signed 13 years ago, is ratified and becomes operational in this country.”
But Geraldine Rowley, communications and policy manager with Ruhama, which supports trafficking victims, said the number of cases being investigated is only “the tip of the iceberg”. “It is really only a small percentage that are identified in Ireland,” she said. “The majority of victims of trafficking that we are aware of and have referred to the gardaí for investigation are women who have got themselves out of the trafficking situation.
“We still rely a lot on the emigration process to be the safety net to catch victims.”
Ms Rowley said there was a link between prostitution and sex trafficking and resources should be available for police to identify victims of sex trafficking.
“Nobody knows the full extent of sex trafficking in Ireland but we do believe that we probably only meeting a minority of those who are victims of trafficking.”
She said victims were not going to come forward if the support and protection, they needed was not there.
Ruhama recently gave a broad welcome to a report by the Council of Europe that found Ireland needed to improve its method of identifying victims.
The report that examined Ireland’s implementation of the Council of Europe’s 2005 anti-trafficking convention was compiled following a five-day visit to Ireland last year by Greta, the Council of Europe’s expert group on human trafficking. It found that gaps in the identification procedure and low rate of prosecution could be leading to an under-estimation of the scale of the problem.
