Mr. Brian Killoran:

I apologise; I forgot that point. There are a number of stages in the response to a victim of trafficking. The first stage is called a recovery and reflection period, which is essentially that when someone is identified as a suspected victim of trafficking, he or she gets 60 days in which to recover initially from the situation from which he or she has just emerged. As one can imagine, someone who has been exploited in the sex industry is dealing with immediate trauma and often with immediate physical and psychological effects of his or her circumstances. That can lead to a temporary residency permit, which is a six-month permission. The 60-day period is the first part. We hear anecdotally from different services that some of the RIA centres are interpreting their obligations as relating just to that 60-day period and taking the view that once that 60-day period is up, the centre no longer has an obligation to the person. Such centres are writing people letters to request them to leave and those people are then going to the support services to ask what they should do. The support services are then going to homelessness services with such a person to ask whether a bed is available that night. While there is no research that can identify this, that is what we are hearing from the services and we have seen it ourselves. It is completely unacceptable for someone who has just come from a very traumatic situation.