Just THREE convictions for human traff icking despite more than 1,200 offences
JUST three people have been convicted of human trafficking or child sexual exploitation in Ireland, despite more than 1,200 related offences coming before the courts in over a decade, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal. The revelation has sparked renewed international criticism of Ireland’s poor record in combating human trafficking.
Figures provided by Justice Minister Helen McEntee in response to a parliamentary question confirm a total of 1,223 cases relating to human trafficking came before district courts across the country from 2010 to the first half of last year. However, almost all of these cases did not end in a conviction.
The growing problem of people trafficking was highlighted recently after 14 undocumented migrants were found in a refrigerated container at Rosslare Europort. They had cut a hole in the side of the container as they struggled to breathe.
Irish Road Haulage Association president Eugene Drennan told our sister paper, the Irish Daily Mail, how Irish drivers are being offered up to €25,000 to smuggle migrants and illicit items into the country.
Responding to the tiny number of convictions for trafficking, Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, who put the query, told the MoS: ‘It is appalling just three people have been convicted in the district courts for human trafficking in the past 10 years, despite more than 1,000 cases coming before them. I have never seen a worse conviction rate in any other area of serious crime.’
The vast majority of cases before the courts here involved the detention and sexual exploitation of children illegally trafficked into the country.
A total of 207 suspects appeared before the courts in relation to trafficking cases since 2010. But just nine of these related to the ‘trafficking of an adult’, according to the Department of Justice figures.
Mr Tóibín noted the remaining 198 ‘were before the courts in relation to the sexual exploitation of children, the detention or trafficking of children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, or attempts to do so’.
The Meath West TD said human trafficking is now ‘something which is very much hidden in plain sight in Ireland’. He told the MoS: ‘It’s happening, I believe, in every town in the country. We know that in recent years the US government placed Ireland on a watchlist due to our poor record when it comes to trafficking.’
While Ireland was taken off the US State Department’s latest report on human trafficking in 2022, the country remains on the Tier 2 watchlist of its Trafficking in Persons report.
Last September, the MoS revealed how criminal gangs are targeting vulnerable children living in State care – some of whom were trafficked into the country – to work in brothels.
In one case, a 14-year-old girl was trafficked to Ireland from West Africa and was abducted by a criminal gang tracking her movements within minutes of entering State care. She was found over a year later locked in a brothel, where she had been forced to work as a sex slave.
Figures provided by the Department at the time revealed 17 of 38 minors who went missing from State care after arriving unaccompanied to Ireland in the first nine months of the year were unaccounted for.
Mr Tóibín said this weekend: ‘I am extremely concerned about the number of unaccompanied minors going missing from State care each year. The Special Emergency Accommodation arrangements for children in State care are so weak that some unaccompanied minors or separated children seeking international protection have wound up homeless.
‘It is truly shocking that the primary form of human trafficking in this country is the sexual exploitation of children. From the border to the child protection services, this Government’s management of the situation is a mess. I often feel that governments are very good at looking back at historic wrongs, but child abuse is happening at a colossal scale right now in Ireland under our noses and very little seems to be being done about it. We know dozens of unaccompanied minors are going missing from State services every year and where the Government is providing accommodation for minors, much of it is in unregulated special accommodation without properly vetted staff.’
In her response to the PQ, Ms McEntee insisted ‘the prevention, detection and prosecution of the abhorrent crime of human trafficking’ is a priority for the Government.
She said: ‘A number of significant measures have been taken to combat human trafficking... The most significant of these has been the development of the new National Referral Mechanism (NRM) framework, which will make it easier for victims of human trafficking to come forward and access supports and services by providing a role for a range of state bodies and NGOs in identifying victims of human trafficking and referring them to the NRM.’
In response to Mr Tóibín’s criticisms of the low number of convictions in the district courts, the Courts Service said some of these cases may have been sent on to the higher Circuit Court. However, the Courts Service was unable to provide figures. A Department of Justice spokesman said: ‘Across Government, we acknowledge the seriousness of this crime and are determined to reach and help those who have been affected by it and to take them out of these horrific situations. We are also determined to bring the perpetrators and facilitators of this crime to justice. This is a key part of our plan to build stronger, safer communities.’
Ruth Breslin, lead researcher at the Sexual Exploitation Research Programme at UCD, said: ‘If you don’t have successful prosecutions, the message to traffickers is this is a great place to traffic people into because you won’t be convicted of it.’
‘It is happening in every town in the country’