The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission provides a contribution to the EU on Ireland’s response to human trafficking

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission provided an update to EU partners outlining that Ireland is currently failing to ensure the early identification of victims of human trafficking. The commission stated the importance of having a national ID process in place and the importance of the HSE also embracing its role in helping trafficking victims. An early ID process could ensure victims are access to support services and avoid being criminalised.

The commission was assigned the role of National Rapporteurs on Trafficking in Human beings in October 2020 and met with the EU Network of National Rapporteurs on Trafficking in Human beings on 7 May 2021. Article 19 of the European Union Anti Trafficking Directive introduced the requirement for each EU member state to have National Rapporteurs.

The issues discussed by the EU Rapporteurs include;

• Gender-specific shelters where urgent improvement is needed
• Trafficking for sexual exploitation is the prevalent type of exploitation in Ireland
• Trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Ireland is a cyber-operated activity
• The European Economic Area, Africa and to a lesser extent Asia are the relevant regions of origins of victims of trafficking of women for the purposes of sexual exploitation in Ireland.
• Trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation has notable sporadic surges linked to the operations of various production and service sectors.

In its role as National Rapporteur, the commission is required to publish reports evaluating Ireland’s performance in tackling human trafficking and its fulfilment of the State’s international obligations. The commission also noted that there is a lack of data in Ireland on human trafficking victims. There are only 14,000 registered victims within the EU with the actual figure believed to be much higher.

See here for the full press release