Exploitation we pretend not to see - People trafficking in Ireland

YESTERDAY’S exposé by The Guardian can hardly be described as an exposé at all — the evidence of people trafficking and exploitation is all around us if we care to open our eyes and ears.

The Guardian piece, a victory for old-fashioned, nose-to-the-ground journalism, is more an indictment of us all and should be commended for that.

How we react will be another indication of what we are really like; whether we are a caring, decent, honest society or a society prepared to turn a blind eye, again, to exploitation bordering on slavery, exploitation we would not tolerate if Irish workers — even Magdalene Laundry workers — were involved. Yesterday’s declarations from ministers Coveney and Howlin that immediate and decisive action would be taken are welcome but ring just a tone or two too hollow. A day late and a dollar short as they say in the movies.

Yesterday’s story may focus on commercial fishing but the evidence of trafficking to staff a range of industries — horticulture, entertainment, catering, cleaning, domestic workers, healthcare, meat processing and sex trade especially — on these islands has been appartent for many years. Indeed the International Transport Workers’ Federation Ken Fleming says he sent reports to every Government minister in 2008 and 2010 detailing how illegal African and Asian workers were exploited as cheap labour on “90% of fishing vessels” but nothing was done. How can this be?

We do not have to rely on union activists for the evidence. Last April our High Court found serious failures in a Garda investigation into trafficking of forced labour at a cannabis growhouse. The court ruled that gardaí had not identified a victim of human trafficking who was subsequently sent to jail for two-and-a-half years. Rather than offering protection to people who may not even know what country they are in, we, in this instance, sent them to jail. How can this be?

Every resposnse from the commercial fishing sector to the story yesterday referred to the difficulties involved in getting work permits for non-EU nationals, as if this justified the reprehensible behaviour. This is a fraught area that deserves further scrutiny and maybe a robust challenge — especially if we demand that everyone working in this society be treated fairly and with dignity. On the face of it these permits seem no more than a licence for unscrupulous employers to bypass the standards we expect for ourselves. The practice seems another version of the situation where very profitable retailers pay staff so poorly that they must rely on income supplement support from social services. Why the option to import cheap labour should exist at all in a country with over 200,000 people out of work is another thorny question.

Another contribution yesterday confirmed that we have legislation to deal with this issue but that we do not apply it properly. Once again our abject habit of making rules but not enforcing them is highlighted as the corosive corruption it is. Tragically, this story will probably be a three-day wonder and when the furore dies down trawler owners — and other callous employers — will resume their abuse of trafficked workers. And we will pretend not to notice.