Legal aid body assists twice as many trafficking victims

The numbers of potential victims of human trafficking provided with legal services by the Legal Aid Board more than doubled in 2015.

In a seven-year period from 2009, the board assisted 144 potential victims of human trafficking.

The annual report for 2015 shows the board supported 38 new victims that year, compared to 16 in 2014.

Eleven of the victims were referred in relation to sexual exploitation, 14 in relation to labour exploitation, two in relation to labour and sexual exploitation, six in relation to forced criminality, one in relation to forced begging and four were for unspecified reasons.

The report states 97 potential victims of human trafficking were still registered as clients of the board by the year end 2015.

Some 80 were female and 17 were male, 95 were adults, one was an unaccompanied minor and one was an accompanied minor.

The Refugee Documentation Centre (RDC) operates under the aegis of the board and provides an objective research and query service to agencies and individuals involved in the international protection process.

A sample of the queries sought in 2015 included honour killings in Pakistan, Juju rituals and practices in Nigeria, forced recruitment by the Taliban in Afghanistan, treatment of LGBT people in Malawi, xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the security situation in Iraq.

As a result of the sharp rise in those seeking asylum here in 2015, the number of new clients registering at the Legal Aid Board for international protection services rose by 70% to 1,537.

The report states: “This was the second year that this number increased substantially and it was consistent with an increase in the numbers seeking international protection in the State.”

The report also stated that it granted 846 legal aid certificates in international protection cases in 2015 to enable representation before the Refugee Appeals Tribunal (RAT).

The RAT decides appeals against recommendations of the Refugee Applications Commissioner against a grant of asylum or a grant of subsidiary protection.

Overall, the board recorded a loss of €1.33m for 2015. The board’s spend had totalled €36.18m which included €9.3m in legal fees and expenses.

It provided legal aid for a number of areas in the criminal justice system, including High Court bail applications which totalled €1m.

A further €178,000 was spent providing legal aid to persons involved in Criminal Assets Bureau cases that were before the courts.

The expenditure on the Garda Station Legal Advice Revised Scheme in 2015 totalled €1.44 million, an increase of over €400,000 on 2014.

The board states that this reflects the impact of the first full year of operation of the revised scheme which provides for the detainee to be accompanied by a solicitor at Garda interviews.