Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. People smuggling is already an offence under the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000. However, this Bill fulfills additional requirements on Ireland from the EU and provides for the implementation of three international legal instruments in the area of people smuggling. I am supportive of this and urge its swift passage.

Ireland needs to provide an effective international response to the growing problem of people smuggling. We must be clear that people smuggling is not trafficking. Trafficking is carried out for the purpose of exploitation and need not involve illegal entry to a State. People smuggling involves illegal entry and exploitation. When someone is involved with a people smuggler, he or she is a victim and we need to protect such victims. People smuggling costs lives and is a business model. We need to put them out of business and stamp it out.

This Bill stipulates that any person who deliberately assists unauthorised entry, transit or residence of a non-EU national in the EU will be sanctioned unless they do so for humanitarian reasons. Seeing the balance of supporting humanitarian efforts while tackling people smuggling is most welcome. In 2020, UN expert Siobhán Mullally told the General Assembly that Covid-19 increased the risk of exploitation of women, children, migrants and other vulnerable people:

A new model of identification and early support and assistance is needed, one that recognises that vulnerability is shaped by discrimination and by the inability of a person to gain access to social protection and effective remedies.

That is exactly what she stated.

I also agree that we must make a lot of changes to the migration policies and radically refocus international human rights law and practice to combat criminality. The Bill is very supportive of that. The reality in these crimes is that in most cases payment to be smuggled into Ireland will have been made outside the State. Evidence of payment is difficult to find. It is also the case that people being smuggled are often unwilling to be witnesses for the prosecution, which makes it all the more difficult. We must do all we can to safeguard the victims from the abuse, financial exploitation and even death which can occur with smuggling.

I am happy to see in section 5 a provision in respect of the definition of what it means to "assist the presence", which in sections 6 and 7 ensures that no doubt exists that the ordinary provision of goods and services including, for example, rental accommodation does not constitute an offence even if the person providing the goods or service is aware that the receiver is unlawfully present. Sometimes people will help the victims who are not the ones who have smuggled. That is very important because there is a difference. People smuggling is a business model and it is largely the preserve of organised criminal gangs whose sole motivation is profit. Women and children are often the most vulnerable of their prey and we must do all we can to protect such vulnerable people. The criminals take advantage of vulnerable and desperate people who are only seeking a better life than the one they are living now.

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