Professor Michael Breen:

We see the invitation today as an endorsement of the necessity of having high-quality data for both the formation of public policy and the creation of appropriate legislative frameworks, especially when it involves hidden criminality. In our report, we identified 132 probable and possible victims of trafficking unknown to the authorities. We stress that they represent only a portion of the dark figure, not its totality. Given the limited timeframe and resources of the human trafficking and exploitation project on the island of Ireland, HTEPII, project, we consider it likely that further research will uncover more hidden victims. We think it is critical for all available data on human trafficking, including data on victims outside of the national referral mechanism, NRM, to be collected, collated and analysed within a dynamic database. It should include information from all agencies. Mechanisms must be put in place to allow non-statutory organisations sufficient funding, personnel and opportunity to consolidate and register the data. Consideration should be given to the creation of a shared database for use by all relevant parties on the island of Ireland.

We note that the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, GRETA, and trafficking in persons, TIP, reports are quite specific about inadequacies of the current system. Working with victims would be greatly enhanced by the provision of quality training for all individuals who come in direct contact with trafficking victims. This training must be gender appropriate and sensitive to the individual circumstances and cultural context of victims. We believe that further research would be of assistance in prosecuting offenders for both sex and labour trafficking, in better training of relevant personnel, in increasing victim identification and in proposing an improved referral mechanism in co-ordination with various official and unofficial actors. Given the critical role that support organisations may play as a source of information about trafficking beyond the official records, it is anticipated that this research is worthy of a significant investment of time and energy across the island of Ireland but, as of now, this work remains outstanding.