Criminal gangs taking advantage of the Border for trafficking - report

Criminal gangs may be taking advantage of the Border and the “unique policing conditions” between the Republic and Northern Ireland to traffic victims for sexual and labour exploitation, according to a new report.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (Ihrec) report, published on Tuesday, said 44 victims of trafficking were identified in the State last year.

Twenty-five of the victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation such as prostitution, while 19 were trafficked for labour exploitation in the fishing industry, the food production sector, as well as for agriculture and domestic work.

The vast majority of victims came from Africa and about two-thirds of trafficking victims last year were women.

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The report warned that “highly organised” transnational criminal groups were operating between the Republic and the UK trafficking victims. It said these criminal gangs saw the island of Ireland as a “single market” and take advantage of the Common Travel Area and “unique jurisdiction and policing conditions between the countries” when trafficking victims.

The commission said that victims were “moved easily and often across the Border”, with traffickers running bases in both jurisdictions, and making frequent use of the “extensive air and sea connections between the UK, Ireland and Europe”.

In one case study highlighted by the report, a man was trafficked from southern Africa through Northern Ireland to work on a fishing boat in the Republic, where he had no access to washing facilities and was told he would not be paid until he worked off the cost of his journey to the State, Ihrec said.

For the second year in a row authorities did not identify a single child victim of trafficking, which the commission warned could point to problems in the system for identifying underage victims.

“The lower than average trend in the preceding years, and the lack of identifications of child victims over the last two years, is a cause of concern,” the report said.

The commission said while there were compensation schemes to support trafficking victims, it was “deeply concerned” that these seemed “inaccessible” in practice.

Housing victims in direct provision, the State accommodation system for asylum seekers, rather than in single-gender centres was also “substandard” practice, the report said.