Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We in the Labour Party welcome this proposal. The issue of human trafficking is one to which, historically, the State has not given due attention. It must be said there have been a good few initiatives, mostly from EU level, in recent years that made some headway. I think, for example, of the EU directive on preventing and combating human trafficking and protecting its victims, which was debated in the House this time last year and which received unanimous support. I expect this proposal will receive the same.

It is an area my Labour Party colleagues and I have been out on in the past. The Labour Exploitation and Trafficking (Audit of Supply Chains) Bill put forward by myself and Deputies Nash and Sherlock was debated on Second Stage in September. That Bill would mandate firms to report annually on the measures they have taken to ensure production of the goods and services they sell does not involve exploitative practices, including human trafficking, at any point in the supply chain. It received cross-party support and is awaiting Committee Stage.

We ask Government to give that priority, particularly as there is now some wind in the sails of human rights obligations in business supply chains. Last month, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee, under the leadership of the S&D group, approved the corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which contains similar provisions and aims to the Labour Party's Bill. That Bill would be Ireland's first legislation regulating corporate activity in respect of labour exploitation and trafficking. That speaks to the lack of attention paid to human trafficking generally. It has not been given the same degree of attention in Ireland as other crimes with an international element, such as drug smuggling. We need to move on it. We are one of the most open and globalised economies in the world. We rely heavily on global supply chains and, as such, have a particular moral obligation to ensure the legal frameworks are in place for due diligence and accessibility mechanisms to prevent abuses of human rights and labour rights.

Big firms, household names in many instances, have got away with turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in their supply chains for too long. France was the first EU member state to introduce such laws, in 2017. Germany and Norway followed suit in 2021, and parliamentary processes are under way in several more of our EU neighbours. We need to keep the ball rolling and progress the Labour Party's Bill.

Turning to the broader issues of human trafficking and the proposal, it is important we recognise this is a crime whose victims are among the most vulnerable people. It is an especially nefarious crime in that regard.

Compassion for those directly affected needs to be at the centre of our response to this issue, and raising public consciousness of it needs to elevate the voices of victims. The most recent data shows there were 42 cases officially accepted in the national referral mechanism for victims of trafficking in 2022, the majority of whom were female and trafficked for sexual exploitation. Labour exploitation was the second-highest purpose and the majority was comprised of male victims. In reality, and this is borne out in numerous studies, the actual number of people trafficked into Ireland is much higher - as much as 40% higher. That is the hidden nature of this crime.

At EU level, we are now at the point where the numbers of people being trafficked into Europe are the highest they have been since 2016. The obvious international element of this crime means it requires a strong international response, particularly in the context of the global instability we are seeing at present. This instability creates the conditions for vulnerable people to be preyed upon and forces desperate individuals and families trying to escape desperate situations into the hands of traffickers. More than 90% of those who come to Europe irregularly do so with the assistance of people smugglers. Ultimately, operational activities to combat migrant smuggling and trafficking are the responsibility of individual member states, with supports from various EU agencies such as Europol and Frontex, and we accept that. It is welcome that this proposal aims to strengthen Europol's operational capacity within member states, and especially its co-operation with third countries, but we need to see a more co-ordinated and integrated response among EU member states where possible such as in data and information sharing, notwithstanding some improvements in recent years. We hope this proposal results in that aim.

I will make one final point. When I spoke last year on the directive of preventing and combating human trafficking, I raised the issue of social media platforms, the Internet being utilised by traffickers, and how it is far too easy for social media companies to ignore their responsibility in that regard. The European Migrant Smuggling Centre is responsible for monitoring the online presence of traffickers and I am glad to see that this proposal will strengthen the centre's regulatory framework and will establish it in law within Europol. That is a welcome development. Ireland is home to many of these big social media companies, so it is imperative we work closely with the EMSC to combat the online activity of traffickers and not allow those companies to simply turn a blind eye to it, as they have too often been allowed to do in the past.

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