Child trafficking: 'Alarming' that children can travel into Ireland without correct checks in place

The warning about vulnerable children comes ahead of the Mecpaths and Cork Against Human Trafficking seminar on Thursday. Picture: iStock

An anti-trafficking organisation says it is not acceptable for the State to say that a “high majority of unaccompanied minors missing from State care had indicated their plans to return home”.

Mecpaths was reacting to health watchdog Hiqa's acceptance of concerns raised by a whistleblower earlier this year about the handling by Tusla of unaccompanied minors arriving in Ireland.

The Irish Examiner reported that a protected disclosure was made to Hiqa earlier this year after the whistleblower became concerned after “many former border management unit officers who worked in Dublin Airport” raised issues with how “family reunification assessments” were handled there. Hiqa told the whistleblower that there “is prima facie evidence that tends to show a relevant wrongdoing may have occurred”.

Mecpaths’s JP O’Sullivan told the Irish Examiner that the increased vulnerability of unaccompanied minors is a globally recognised concern.

"Child trafficking is defined in Irish legislation as ‘recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child for some type of exploitation’. 

"To consider that vulnerable children may have been directed so freely through an international border without the correct checks and balances in place is alarming.” 

He added: “It is no longer acceptable for the State to advise that a high majority of unaccompanied minors missing from State care had indicated their plans to return home. These are children. We welcome the insights offered from this investigation and firmly hold concerns that it should take a whistleblower to bring this to light.” 

Research by the Irish Examiner last year on missing children reports from An Garda Siochána and Interpol showed that more than 130 children reported missing in Ireland since 1977 remained missing. The majority of the missing children are migrants. The garda missing person reports stopped mentioning the nationality of the missing children in 2017.

Trafficking seminar on Thursday

On Thursday, Mecpaths will come together with Cork Against Human Trafficking for a seminar to mark World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. The event will have an emphasis on child exploitation.