Gardaí probe link between Polish man and Ukrainian minor who arrived here together
The girl, who may have an intellectual disability and who is also suspected of having suffered neglect back in Ukraine, was taken into emergency care by Tusla.
Gardaí are conducting inquiries into the relationship between a man and a Ukrainian minor who arrived together in the country.
The case of the girl was highlighted earlier this week by the Child Law Project, which reports on family law cases, often involving neglect and abuse.
The girl, who may have an intellectual disability and who is also suspected of having suffered neglect back in Ukraine, was taken into emergency care by Tusla, amid fears she may have been trafficked here and that she may have been groomed in her home country.
The case study said a social worker told the district court that the child presented at the Ukrainian centre at the airport with no identification and accompanied by a man.
It said the child was interviewed by a social worker and initially said that the man was her uncle but then said that he was her cousin. It later transpired that the man was not related to her at all.
According to the report, the girl told authorities that she met the man in school and had known him for four years, that he bought her nice things, and that her parents didn’t look after her.
Tusla had attempted to make telephone contact with the girl’s family using numbers in the child’s phone but had been unsuccessful and it was understood her mother and grandmother were in two different EU countries.
One of the people contacted, the mother’s former partner, told Tusla that the man the girl was with was not a good man and that she should be taken away from him.
The report said the man was arrested and interviewed by the gardaí but was later released without charge and his whereabouts were currently unknown.
Responding to the report, Garda sources said that the man was not arrested and was only subject to normal immigration checks.
Gardaí said that as the girl and the man were claiming to coming from Ukraine, they were brought to the reception centre at Dublin Airport for Ukrainians.
The man voluntarily gave his fingerprints, which enabled gardaí to identify him and establish that he was a resident of Poland.
Sources said he was refused leave to land and turned around at the airport and put on the next flight back to Poland.
“There was no indication at the time of anything criminal or any criminal conduct involving the girl,” said a source. “He wasn’t arrested, he was fingerprinted for immigration and identification purposes. It was purely an immigration process.”
Gardaí said Tusla took the girl into care as she had no family here and that only subsequently did Tusla raise concerns regarding the girl and about who the man was.
Gardaí said that inquiries were being conducted to try and establish why the man was with the girl at the airport and what their relationship was but added that the man was now in Poland.
It is thought that no formal allegation of wrongdoing has been made by the girl and that without such a statement a criminal investigation was unlikely to be set up.
According to the report, the court was informed that the girl asked repeatedly if she could speak with the man and said that she wanted to speak to him about "a lady issue".
The court was told that she presented as a very vulnerable person and while she said she was 17 and provided a passport, the social worker told the court that she presented as much younger.
The girl said she attended a special school in Ukraine and that her stepfather drank vodka all the time.
Of the 386 such referrals Tusla has received since the start of the year, 113 were from Ukraine, 62 of whom are in the care system.
Garda sources said they are seeing a lot of unusual cases and relationships among people travelling together coming from Ukraine and say they are aware that while most are genuine some might be more sinister.
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