Report warns human trafficking in Ireland rose 20% last year, as underestimation persists ━ The European Conservative

A new report has revealed repeated concerns about the risks trafficking poses to children in state care, and found that the number of identified victims of trafficking in Ireland rose by 20% on the previous year, despite continued undercounting.

The report, Human trafficking in Irelandof the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), also raises concerns about the exploitation of surrogacy by traffickers, which it describes as “one of the most worrying new and emerging forms of human trafficking”.

The HSE Anti-Human Trafficking Team (HSE AHTT) also provided the authors of the reports with a number of ‘case studies’ of victims’ experiences of trafficking, including that of a woman, Kira, who was trafficked from Europe to Ireland to work in a ‘food processing factory’ for €1 an hour. The rest of her wages were withheld by the alleged trafficker, while her family in her home country were threatened by traffickers.

The state reports that 53 people were identified as victims of human trafficking in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022.

The report found that research has shown that the annual data underestimates by about 40%, “due to the secretive nature of the crime and the complexity of identifying and confirming victims.”

The increase has been described as “significant”, with victims in Ireland being trafficked for a range of forms of exploitation. Sexual exploitation is by far the most prevalent, with 28 victims identified last year, followed by labour exploitation with 16, and nine people being trafficked for “criminal activities”.

The vast majority of victims identified in 2023 were women (79%). The report describes the increase (by 33%) in female victims in all forms of trafficking compared to the previous year as “shocking”, while there was a “slight decrease” in male victims (21%) identified overall, including in the typically male-dominated forms of trafficking for labour exploitation.

Last year, five children were identified as victims of trafficking, four girls and one boy. The report found that three of the girls were suspected of being trafficked for criminal activities, one girl for sexual exploitation and one boy was suspected of being trafficked for labour exploitation.

The majority (53%) of trafficking victims last year came from Africa, followed by Europe (28%) and Asia (15%). There were only two victims from Latin America, accounting for 4 percent.

The first reference in the report to children in state care comes as the Commission recommends that the Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) conduct an “urgent audit” of all state residential care centres to assess the risk of exploitation and trafficking, as well as the development of “specific strategic plans aimed at preventing the trafficking of all children in Ireland, in particular the trafficking of children in state care accommodation.”

This follows a 2023 report from University College Dublin (UCD) which found that vulnerable children in care in Ireland are being targeted for sexual exploitation and abuse by ‘gangs of predatory males’. The report cited multiple cases of girls in TUSLA care being ‘coerced or enticed into performing sexual acts with multiple men in exchange for a range of goods’, including clothing and jewellery.

The IHREC report repeatedly states that the placement of children in state care institutions increases their vulnerability to trafficking and re-trafficking “during and after their placement in such institutions”.

“Children can be targeted by traffickers through phone calls, visits or the use of other residents,” the report said, citing the UCD report, which said: “It has been documented that children and young people, particularly girls, in residential care settings are targeted in a coordinated manner by organised groups of predatory males for the purpose of sexually exploiting them.”

The IHREC report also documents new forms of exploitation, including the exploitation of surrogacy by traffickers. This is listed alongside other forms of exploitation that will be addressed by the amendment of the 2011 EU Anti-Trafficking Directive in 2022, such as forced marriage and illegal adoption.

In its recommendations to the State regarding surrogacy, the Commission advises that the State “carefully examine whether these protection measures can be implemented and/or whether they are adequate for the realities of the market that this (AHR) bill seeks to regulate”.

The report includes a number of case studies, including the example of an African national, Ada (39), who was ‘detained against her will and subjected to sexual exploitation for approximately one year’ upon arrival in Ireland.

Ada was abused and raped by men, “including hooded men,” the report said, before she escaped traffickers in 2018 and became homeless.

Another woman, Kira, was offered work in Ireland by someone she knew. She was recruited by an EU citizen along with 25 others to work in an unnamed “food processing plant” in Ireland. Kira’s transport was paid for, while her alleged trafficker also provided her with accommodation.

“The EU national/alleged trafficker paid her wages immediately after receiving the salary from the factory owner/employer of the food processing plant in Ireland. There was an agreement to reimburse her travel expenses to Ireland. Kira’s wages were approximately €1 per hour, as the rest was held by the alleged trafficker. Kira was told she would not be allowed to leave until she had paid off her debt. She was threatened that her family would be targeted if she left,” the case study said.

A total of 566 victims of human trafficking have been identified in Ireland since 2013, 44 of whom were children.

This article originally appeared in Gript on September 20, 2024 and is reproduced with permission.