John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak about this important issue. The debate on human trafficking and on prostitution tends to be clouded by emotive argument often based on preconceived opinion rather than on evidence or practice on the ground. I will seek to expand on some of the points made by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and base my contribution on evidence and practice on the ground.

At the outset, I wish to address the claim that the Garda National Immigration Bureau, GNIB, is not the appropriate division within the Garda Síochána to tackle trafficking and that authority in this matter should be given over to the Garda organised crime unit. As the Minister noted, the deployment of personnel and the assignment of areas of responsibility is a matter for the Garda Commissioner. However, trafficking is an extremely complex phenomenon that overlaps a range of issues such as irregular migration, international organised crime, political and economic instability in countries of origin, among others. It is an over-simplification of the issue to suggest that trafficking in human beings can be dealt with solely by law enforcement authorities charged with investigating organised criminal gangs. While certainly there are numerous links between trafficking and organised crime, trafficking is intrinsically linked to migration as it usually, but not always, involves the movement of persons from one State to another and on balance is therefore best dealt with by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, which has particular expertise in the field of migration. Moreover, a dedicated unit within the GNIB, namely, the human trafficking investigation and co-ordination unit, has been established. This unit has the responsibility to provide advice, support and where necessary operational assistance to investigations undertaken at district level throughout Ireland.

The decision to give responsibility for the investigation of offences of human trafficking and the establishment of a dedicated unit for the investigation of human trafficking, in particular, took into consideration the links between the cross-border movement of persons and the identified links between the immigration process and human trafficking. The GNIB already has responsibility for international co-operation on breaches of immigration law. While the GNIB has primary responsibility for the investigation of immigration crime and human trafficking, the GNIB also is part of the national support services, which is comprised of other national units, including the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the Garda national drugs unit, the Garda technical bureau and the operational support unit. All of the above units and the specialist services within them are available to the Garda National Immigration Bureau or any other district or division in the course of an investigation.

It also should be noted that approximately 350 gardaí throughout all the Garda divisions will have received in-depth training on tackling human trafficking, prevention and protection and in the investigation of crimes involving human trafficking by the end of this year. This training is delivered by the International Organization for Migration in co-operation with the GNIB. The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre also contributes, and probably uniquely in a Garda training course, NGOs working in the areas of trafficking of human beings for sexual and labour exploitation contribute to the training by offering their perspective and experiences. This training is in addition to the more than 1,100 gardaí who have received basic training on awareness raising.

I now will turn to claims regarding the low number of victims and no prosecutions. Claims have been also made that few victims of trafficking have been identified and that no prosecutions have been forthcoming. I assure Members that the Garda Síochána has made concerted efforts to make certain that victims are recovered and protected and that traffickers are brought to justice. I have noted when attempts are made to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-trafficking activities that far too much emphasis is placed on the number of prosecutions made and the convictions obtained on foot of these. This fails to acknowledge the substantial work done in other areas, such as preventative action taken against traffickers, co-operation with other law enforcement authorities to tackle trafficking on an international level and the range of support services put in place to assist victims.

The Criminal Justice (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 came into force on 7 June 2008 or approximately 17 months ago. While the Garda Síochána is actively investigating cases, they are complex, time-consuming and notoriously difficult to prosecute. By way of example, one person who has sought access to the recovery and reflection period and who wanted to tell her story took five different sessions to do so. The typed report of her comments amounted to more than 55 pages. Since then however, the person in question has reverted to the Garda Síochána and has made an additional statement to the effect that she was not telling the truth in her original statement and that the person who she stated was her friend is in fact her alleged trafficker.

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