No adequate access to support services for country's trafficking victims outside Dublin

Dola Twomey (pictured, left) with Mary Crilly from the Sexual Violence Centre in Cork has raised concerns about the level of services available outside of the capital ahead of the publication on Tuesday of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) by the US Secretary of State, Antony J Blinken. File picture: Howard Crowdy

Victims of trafficking in areas of Ireland outside of Dublin do not have adequate access to support services, according to Dola Twomey of the Cork Sexual Violence Centre, and the Cork Against Human Trafficking umbrella group.

Ms Twomey raised concerns about the level of services available outside of the capital ahead of the publication on Tuesday of the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) by the US Secretary of State, Antony J Blinken. The report will include a country-by-country synopsis of efforts taken to limit human trafficking.

The 2021 report placed Ireland on the watchlist for the second year in a row, with criticism for continuing “to have systemic deficiencies in victim identification, referral, and assistance, and lacked specialized accommodation and adequate services for victims”.

It also highlighted concerns that Ireland did not prosecute “any labour traffickers, and victim identification decreased for the fourth year in a row”. Ms Twomey said that there are no services for victims of trafficking in areas of the country outside of Dublin. 

She said: “But yet, the vast majority of people who are living in direct provision are in centres outside of Dublin. That is where victims of human trafficking would be housed but they have nothing services-wise close to them.” 

She said those having to travel to Dublin from direct provision centres in locations such as Cork have several hours of a journey there and back.

Ruth Breslin, Lead Researcher of the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme (SERP) at UCD, said that women who have been trafficked into Ireland and faced sexual exploitation should not be in direct provision centres.

She added: “I have heard numerous reports of vulnerable women who have already been through a situation of sexual exploitation who are really made vulnerable to sexual exploitation and sexual violence once again (in direct provision).” 

I have spoken to women who have been sexually harassed, sexually assaulted in the place that they are supposed to call home, where the State has put them and where they are supposed to recover from their experience.

Ms Breslin said there are also concerns about Ukrainian women fleeing the conflict following the Russian invasion in February, and stressed that Ireland needs to work to ensure that people from new communities in Ireland need to be protected.

She pointed out that immigrants may not know where to turn for help if they are being exploited.