Bishops urge Govt to introduce human trafficking laws

The Irish Bishops Conference has called on the Government to introduce new legislation aimed at preventing human trafficking.

They say new laws must come on-stream to strengthen criminal proceedings against traffickers but which will regard the trafficked person as an innocent party.

Estimates suggest that about 2.4 million people are trafficked throughout the world every year.

The Bishops say that the issue must be addressed as a matter of urgency here and Ireland must co-operate fully with any international operations to crack down on this practice.