Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 April 2014
455. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to meet the State's legal obligations regarding the prosecution of victims of trafficking for forced labour; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16536/14]
View answerObligations regarding the prosecution of victims of human trafficking for forced labour are set out in the Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of the 5th April 2011 on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting its Victims. This Directive provides in Article 8 that 'Member States shall, in accordance with the basic principles of their legal systems, take the necessary measures to ensure that competent national authorities are entitled not to prosecute or impose penalties on victims of trafficking in human beings for their involvement in criminal activities which they have been compelled to commit as a direct consequence of being subjected to any of the acts referred to in Article 2.'
Provision to meet the obligations arising from the EU Directive are set out in Chapter 4 of the Director of Public Prosecution’s Guidelines for Prosecutors, which specifically refers to victims of human trafficking, at Section 4.7, where it states: “In assessing whether the public interest lies in commencing or continuing with a prosecution, a prosecutor should exercise particular care where there is information to suggest that the suspect is a victim of crime. An example would be where it is suggested that the suspect is a victim of human trafficking. Such a person may be suspected of a range of offences from breaches of immigration law to offences related to prostitution. In a case in which there is credible information that a suspect is also a crime victim, the prosecutor should consider whether the public interest is served by a prosecution of the suspect”. These guidelines are available on the Director of Public Prosecution’s website www.dpp.ie
