Garda blitz on people trafficking operation Chinese ‘slaves’ found in dire conditions
GARDAI have smashed a suspected international people trafficking ring after a series of raids.
Several addresses were searched yesterday in an operation carried out with social welfare officers and other agencies.
They discovered 13 or 14 rooms converted into compartments for trafficked migrants behind a Chinese shop in Cork.
Sources said the operation is run by a former Chinese national who has links to serious organised crime in his homeland.
The Irish passport holder is suspected of being one of the biggest organisers of cannabis grow houses in the country.
A source said: “There has clearly been a complaint made by an immigrant. This man is trafficking hundreds of impoverished Chinese nationals to work as slaves.
“As gardai went into the address several people ran from the building. Two were arrested for no documents.
“The belief is this was an organised location for Chinese nationals when trafficked into the country but they were in horrific conditions.
“One of the men was staying on a mattress inside a store room, others were in bunk beds. The chief suspect for running the operation is heavily involved in cannabis grow houses in which he uses trafficked people to cultivate the drugs for him.”
Gardai and other agencies have struggled to crack the local Chinese underworld.
A source claimed: “The community are very tight-knit and are very fearful of these people.
“There is significant organised crime involved in this operation and it crosses a lot of borders.
“The people trafficked in here are taken advantage of and suffer a lot from these groups.”
Earlier this year the United Nations Council of Ireland found the real rate of human trafficking here is 50% higher than official data reports.
The Immigrant Council said the estimate tallied with its experience and it criticised the “onerous” process for identifying victims.
The UN research document, supported by the Department of Justice, compared the true figures with the numbers reported to gardai.
Its statistics showed there were 179 actual trafficking victims in Ireland in 2016 but only 95 of those were recorded.
There were 153 actual victims in 2015 with only 78 featuring in official figures.
Both gardai and the Department of Social Protection were asked to comment.
One of the men was on a mattress in a store room, others in bunk beds SOURCE
CO CORK YESTERDAY