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Human Trafficking

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 July 2022

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Questions (31, 64)

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

31. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the number of persons charged with human trafficking in the State in each of the past five years and to date in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35745/22]

View answer

Peadar Tóibín

Question:

64. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice the actions she or her Department have undertaken to combat human trafficking in the State. [35744/22]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 64 together.

Human trafficking is a particularly heinous crime, based on deception and exploitation of vulnerable people.

This Government is serious about preventing and prosecuting human trafficking. We are confident that the victim-centred policy approach we are taking will encourage more victims to come forward which will, in turn, strengthen prosecutions and convictions.

There are two areas of progress in particular that I wish to highlight.

The first is the approval by Government to revise the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and to place it on a statutory footing.

The NRM provides a way for all agencies, both State and civil society, to co-operate, share information about potential victims, identify those victims and facilitate their access to advice, accommodation and support.

Currently, when suspected victims of human trafficking are encountered by, or referred to, An Garda Síochána they are provided with a wide range of services by both the Government and NGOs through the NRM. It is widely accepted that having the Gardaí as the sole competent authority for the formal recognition of people as victims of human trafficking is not the optimal system.

The new approach acknowledges other state bodies and NGOs have a role in identifying victims of human trafficking and referring them to the NRM.

We want to be sure that every victim of trafficking is identified and helped so we can support them. Doing this is of course the right approach but it will also help us gather more information and evidence in order to bring to justice the traffickers who prey on vulnerable people with no regard for the lives and safety of their victims.

I also want to note the development of a new National Action Plan on human trafficking.

My Department engaged with a working group to draft the new National Action Plan high-level goals and outcomes. A draft Action Plan has been prepared and I intend to engage in a further round of stakeholder consultations before the plan is finalised and submitted to Government for approval in Q3 2022.

The Third National Strategy on domestic, sexual and gender-based violence that I launched last week contains an action to identify linkages between the implementation plan accompanying the Strategy, and the National Action Plan on human trafficking, as well as ensuring actions to prevent prostitution and combat trafficking for sexual exploitation are addressed in an integrated manner.

I am advised by the Garda authorities that a search of the PULSE database was conducted on 30 June 2022 to identify:

Any charges created since 1 January 2021 whereby an offence contrary to either the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act, 2000 or the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act, 2008 was referenced.

Any incident of PULSE category “Human Trafficking” which includes the following types:

- Labour Exploitation - Person Other Than A Child

- Sexual Exploitation - Person Other Than A Child

- Labour Exploitation Of A Child

- Sexual Exploitation Of A Child

- Soliciting or Importuning for Prostitution

- Other Offences

Any incident of PULSE category ‘Miscellaneous’ and of type ‘Human Trafficking Offences’

The count of unique incidents and charges for full year 2021 and year to date, 29 June 2022 is as follows.

Type

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

Incidents

52

69

42

68

51

15

Charges

119

*

15

12

27

*

* Figures less than 10 are not reported to ensure there are no issues from a data protection perspective.

Information provided is taken from PULSE as of 30 June 2022, it is operational and may be liable to change. Crime counting rules are not applied to reflect all recorded incidents. There may be more than one charge on a single incident.

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