Victims forced into sexual exploitation within 24 hours of arriving in Ireland, gardaí say
Young, vulnerable females, aged from 18 to 26, are often the targets of traffickers who then exploit them for sex.
Women are being targeted in church groups in Latin America and trafficked to Ireland for sexual exploitation.
Brazil is now the most active country in human trafficking in Ireland according to Detective Superintendent Derek Maguire of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau which leads investigations into human trafficking and prostitution.
Victims of trafficking are often promised a better life abroad but within 24 hours of arriving in Ireland they are forced to sell sex.
Traffickers set targets, forcing women to perform sexual services for up to 12 men a day.
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“Some South American countries are quite religious, and we have seen instances of trafficking where people are recruited or befriended through church groups,” Det Supt Maguire, said.
Social media is making the recruitment of victims much easier, with traffickers contacting people online, grooming them, and forming ‘friendships’ before offering them ‘a better life’ abroad.
Although Det Supt Maguire has not yet seen AI being used as a tool to target more potential victims more quickly, he believes that is “only around the corner” and may already be being deployed by criminals.
Young, vulnerable females, aged from 18 to 26, are often the targets of traffickers who then exploit them for sex.
“We’ve seen horrendous cases where people are brought here to Ireland with no English whatsoever, thinking they’re coming for a better life, and they are put straight onto sexual websites for sexual services.
“A photograph is taken, it’s put up on a website, and they’re providing sexual services within 24 hours of arriving here.
“And they are servicing 10 to 12 clients a day sometimes. They have to reach targets set by the traffickers.”
Organised crime groups involved in human trafficking in Ireland have been identified from Brazil, Romania, some African nations, mainly Nigeria, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and China.
Europol has identified the countries with the highest number of human trafficking victims as Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, Nepal, and Moldova.
But Ireland is seeing different trends in trafficking.
Here, the highest numbers of trafficking victims are from Brazil, China, and Romania, Det Supt Maguire said.
“And it’s not just Ireland that are seeing the huge uptick in the amount of Brazilian people that are being trafficked here for sexual exploitation. That’s across Europe,” he said.
Ireland has seen a huge increase in Brazilian nationals advertising sex for sale over the last two to three years, he said.
That trend started in Spain and Portugal, where direct flights come from Brazil but that spread throughout Europe, including to Ireland.
Brazil suffered badly during the covid pandemic, Det Supt Maguire said. “There was no support there, so anything they had was gone.
“And traffickers always take advantage when there’s a world crisis. Covid was one, the financial crisis years ago, and then the war in Ukraine.”
“Traffickers and criminals in general, take advantage when there’s displacement of people.
“We have no direct flights with Brazil here in Ireland at the moment, so they are transiting through other European countries to get here.”
There are more than 80,000 Brazilians in Ireland at the moment, and with that size of a diaspora, some will be vulnerable to exploitation, he said.
The victims of human trafficking tend to be exploited by people from their own country.
“And they’re exploited along the way here,” he said.
“So, a lot of the people who are here in Ireland have been exploited in other European countries as well.”
Ireland is also seeing an increase in Vietnamese people being trafficked here.
“That can be mainly for labour exploitation or forced criminality, but some in sexual exploitation as well,” he said.
Vietnamese labour exploitation can be in places like nail bars and car washes, he said.
They will work long hours for little or no pay with their salaries controlled by their traffickers. Labour exploitation can be one of the most difficult forms of human trafficking to identify.
Last month, two men were jailed for human trafficking for labour exploitation — the first conviction of its kind in the State.
Georgijs Poniza, 37, from Latvia, and 30-year-old Armen Pogosyan from Uzbekistan, of Armenian nationality, were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison.
They pleaded guilty to human trafficking, money laundering, and forgery offences between December 2020 and October 2023.
Seven victims were recruited by deception in Latvia, promised employment, a good salary, accommodation, and “a better life”.
But they were exploited, with one victim saying he was “treated like a slave and an animal”. Another victim described it as “like a slave trade”.
Victims trafficked into forced criminality are often being caught in cannabis grow houses, Det Supt Maguire said.
People without EU passports could travel into Ireland on fake documents, or they could have legitimate visas to study English or to work here, he added.
People are also coming to Ireland through the North thanks to the common travel area with Britain.
Det Supt Maguire said that while there are high numbers of Chinese sex workers, they are not coming forward as victims of sex trafficking.
“It’s very hard to get a foothold with the Chinese community.
“A lot of them have very little to no English whatsoever, and they live in a lot of fear.
“But it is an area that we are making progress on.”
Street prostitution, bar very small pockets in Limerick and Cork, is essentially gone, Det Supt Maguire said, with it moving behind closed doors, often into rental apartments.
“Sometimes landlords are renting to people and they don’t know what’s going on in the premises, sometimes they are turning a blind eye.”
Irish organised crime gangs do not seem to be involved in human trafficking for sexual exploitation, Det Supt Maguire said.
However, the vast majority appears to be people from other countries exploiting people from their own countries.
Concerns had been raised that the war in Ukraine would lead to a major surge in human trafficking of people who were vulnerable and trying to flee the war, but Ireland only saw a handful of these cases.
Although countries bordering Ukraine, like Poland, did see a surge in exploitation of refugees, this was not found across Europe.
In Ireland, there were supports in place for people, protecting refugees and leaving them much less vulnerable to exploitation.
And there was a focus from states in Western Europe on the crisis, which may have also deterred traffickers from exploiting Ukrainians there, Det Supt Maguire said.
Demand for prostitution from men across Ireland is driving the sex trade and the human trafficking and coercion of women which forms a significant part of it.
On a recent, average day, there were 1,159 sex workers advertised on the island, Det Supt Maguire said.
In Cork, there were 99 people advertising sex for sale, in Limerick there were 37, while Dublin had 468.
Many people are advertising sex for sale in suburban areas.
During covid, the numbers advertising sex for sale dropped to about 200 people a day.
But that had climbed to about 800 people advertising daily in 2023 and 2024.
Now, the number has risen to more than 1,100 per day.
Det Supt Maguire said that 114 human trafficking victims were identified in 2025.
“We know there’s multiples more than that out there,” he said.
But investigations are ongoing and the numbers are increasing since 2022.
There was a 70% increase in human trafficking victims identified in 2025 compared to 2024.
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