Exploitation of minor does not surprise experts

Support groups working with women involved in prostitution and the sex industry have said they are "not at all surprised" by the ordeal of a Romanian teenager forced into having sex with up to 200 men over a two year-period, detailed in yesterday's Irish Times.

The author of an international report on people trafficking, due to be published next month, said at least "a case a week" of non-EU minors being smuggled into Ireland for reasons including sexual exploitation, was coming to light here.

Ms Pauline Conroy, author of a report, Trafficking in Unaccompanied Minors - Ireland, said that while shocked, she was "not at all" surprised by the story.

The ordeal reported yesterday was of an 18-year-old woman from northern Romania who told how she was brought to Ireland by a Romanian national when she was 15, on a false passport.

She said she was kept a virtual prisoner for over two years while being forced to have sex with up to 200 men. She had also met other young women in the same situation. Her case came to light after she was badly beaten by her "captor" about two weeks ago when she was six months pregnant, and was taken to the Rotunda Hospital.

Gardaí are treating her claims seriously and she is being kept in Garda protection. Her case has also been referred to Women's Aid and the Ruhama Women's Project, which works with prostitutes and victims of trafficking.

The project also said last night her story did not surprise them.

"In working with women involved in prostitution we are well aware of the dreadful risks, lack of choice and ongoing threats of violence." Ruhama has repeatedly raised the issue of trafficking and has raised particular concerns about immigrant women involved in the growing lap-dancing industry here.

Ms Maura Connolly, director of Ruhama, has said people should look more critically at what is happening to these women behind the scenes. "How did they become engaged in lap-dancing? What kind of choices did they have? In other countries, the denial of real choice for women is a serious concern. How are these foreign women being treated in Ireland, and do they have the same freedom of movement as Irish women?" she asked.

Figures from the Women's Health Project, an ERHA body offering an outreach service to women in prostitution, indicates the increasing proportion of women from eastern Europe involved.

While in 2003 its outreach service made 137 contacts, 26 of these were with Irish women, 42 were from the EU and 69 were from non-EU countries.

Ms Conroy's report, commissioned by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), involved interviews with frontline professionals including gardaí, social workers and child psychologists.

"They were all saying the same thing," said Ms Conroy - that minors [aged three to 17 years] were being brought in for a variety of reasons, whether that be for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, begging as child brides or as company for older minors.

"It would appear that in the year I carried out this research, which was 2002 to 2003, at least a case a week of a child that had been smuggled here to be exploited, was coming to light."