Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Information released to Aontú following a parliamentary question shows that only three people have been convicted of human trafficking out of 1,000 cases that have come before the courts in the past decade. I have never seen a conviction rate as low as that in any other sector of crime in this country. It is incredibly poor and means we are not on top of this issue in this country.

We need to be clear about our definitions on this issue. Human trafficking is different from people smuggling. Human trafficking is the trade or exploitation of an individual for the another person's gain. I know from listening to the commentary on all sides of this that sometimes these definitions are confused. Trafficking does not always involve the crossing of borders and much trafficking actually takes place in a domestic setting. From examining court records I can see that the biggest form of human trafficking in Ireland is the sexual exploitation of children. There is, of course, labour exploitation, modern slavery and criminal exploitation, but the sexual exploitation of children is the commonest form of trafficking in Ireland at the moment.

The smuggling of persons is a different topic, and it is mentioned in this protocol. I have a number of concerns on that issue, such as the follow-up of gardaí in terms of the victims of smuggling. We had a shocking situation in Wexford recently where migrants arrived in a freezer container and were brought into State care and went missing.

When gardaí were asked where these individuals were, they said it was not their responsibility to follow up or investigate it. Whose responsibility is it to follow up with regard to people who are being smuggled into this country? It has to be somebody's responsibility. In that case, it seemed it was nobody's responsibility.

We sometimes see Irish children turning up in other jurisdictions as victims of child trafficking but why are these children not identified as they leave Ireland? We need better systems, education and awareness among staff at ports and airports in this regard. Legislation was recently passed in the House on the criminal exploitation of children. This is deeply concerning because that law omitted the victim status of the child and this could place Ireland in violation of the Council of Europe convention on human trafficking. Human trafficking attracts the maximum penalty of life imprisonment but the law that the Government passed before Christmas on the recruitment of children for crime imposes only five years imprisonment. This is far too lenient. I believe it leaves the State open to European Court of Human Rights rulings and, in addition, Ireland has been elevated to a tier 2 country in the international assessment of the US State Department. That is not good. Tier 2 watch list status is, I understand, one of the worst that has been awarded to any European country. The diluting of legislation, as was done before Christmas, does not demonstrate a robust and effective way of dealing with human trafficking and forced labour. The Bill signals that the crimes of trafficking of children or forced labour are considered less than they were previously.

The Criminal Justice (Engagement of Children in Criminal Activity) Bill was rammed through the Dáil before Christmas. Under that law, a child has to be guilty in order for the trafficker to be prosecuted. This makes the child a criminal rather than a victim in the process. I have serious questions about the way some Government agencies are dealing with children who are being exposed to trafficking. This is a very important issue. I have raised this constantly with the Minister, Deputy Roderic O'Gorman, and the Department of children. A few months ago, we saw an inexcusable and jaw-dropping scenario where unaccompanied minors or separated children ended up in tents on Mount Street or as homeless asylum seekers. These children had no parents to look after them and they should have been given a safe foster place or a residential placement. This is part of the protocol. Indeed, it would be considered a scandal if those children ended up in direct provision centres on their own, never mind homeless on the streets without parents. This left them incredibly exposed to trafficking and exploitation.

We then have the situation with the special emergency accommodation units. A parliamentary question from Aontú showed that Tusla has paid €93 million to companies operating its emergency placements since 2014. In letters to me, Tusla has admitted that these are unregulated placements, mostly in rented accommodation, with staffing from third-party providers. Some of these are cowboy companies operating out of a few hotel rooms with unvetted staff. It is horrendous that we are putting these children in harm's way. UCD has done a study which suggests that these children are being exposed to further exploitation. These locations should be sanctuaries for children who have been taken from horrendous situations but they are not. We are putting children into exposed situations, which does horrendous damage.

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