WOMEN ARE paying up to €5,000 for false documentation facilitating their trafficking into Ireland, the conference heard.
Rape, beatings, starvation, bewitchment, alcohol and drugs were among the methods used by traffickers to force women into prostitution, according to psychologist Éimear Burke.
One woman victim of trafficking interviewed by Ms Burke was fed only every two or three days. For another, the only food she got was what the clients brought with them to the brothel. She said traffickers used brutal and manipulative methods to exert control over the women. “It often involves weeks or months of travelling on foot, by bus, truck, car, train or boat. The women are not told anything about their destination. They are forced to have sex with their traffickers, which for some resulted in pregnancy.”
By the time they arrive in Ireland the women are “exhausted, confused, demoralised and disempowered”. Ms Burke said a number of women were threatened that their family members at home would be killed, or that they had to work as prostitutes to repay their debts. One was told she had to repay €50,000.
Many of the women had symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, such as recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, an exaggerated startle response or irritability. She said all the women she interviewed had suicidal thoughts or had attempted suicide and there was a very high risk of suicide if they were deported.
The six women interviewed by Ms Burke came from west and central Africa and eastern Europe.
