Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy James Browne, to the House. I also welcome the Bill. However, I wish to highlight the importance of language in the Bill. For example, when we use words such as "smuggled", "trafficked" or "asylum seeker", we can lose track of the people and the stories beneath these terms. While I welcome many of the provisions within the Bill, some of the issues I have with it stem from a lack of precision in the language, which threatens to lose the complexity and struggle of each of the stories. For that reason, when we are discussing the Bill it is important that we remember the individual people and the struggles which we are speaking about today.

We have all watched with horror the pictures of migrants making the journey across the Mediterranean in search of safety. Unfortunately, since the start of this year more than 1,300 people have died while making this journey. It is important to keep these images at the front of our mind during any discussion on policy. That must start by explicitly stating within the Bill that the person who is smuggled will not be liable to criminal prosecution. The goal of the Bill, as I understand it, is to bring Ireland in line with our European and international counterparts. In this sense, to add in a clear line protecting these vulnerable people from criminal prosecution would bring Ireland on par with the standard set in the UN protocol against the smuggling of migrants, on which the EU's two legal instruments, which this Bill seeks to implement, are based.

In addition, it is essential that the Bill explicitly grants rights and protections to vulnerable smuggled persons. These are people who have undertaken the most dangerous journeys. While the State has the right to control the entry and residence status of anyone entering the country, the legislation must also make accommodation for their safety and protection.

Our Constitution, as well as European and international law, offer several fundamental protections to everyone who reaches our shores, regardless of their migration status. People who have been smuggled are entitled to these rights and that should be clearly stated within the Bill. To do this would, again, not exceed the standard set by EU laws, which this Bill is looking to implement, but merely meet them.

Making smuggled persons' rights and protections explicit within the Bill would bring it in line with the Court of Justice of the European Union. In 2014 the court confirmed that personal rights afforded to European citizens and laid out in the European Convention on Human Rights Act, as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights, are also afforded to those people who are smuggled.

In order to ensure that these vulnerable people are offered the rights and protections to which they are entitled, we must first ensure that they are properly identified. Currently, Ireland and Romania are the only two EU states that are placed on the tier 2 watchlist of the recently published Trafficking in Persons report. The report, compiled by the United States Government to combat human trafficking, suggests with this ranking that the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking in Ireland is either very significant or is significantly increasing.

It is therefore essential that this Bill commits to the establishment of a proper identification process, which should tie in to clearly stated rights and entitlements laid out within the Bill. However, without naming specific rights and protections or administrative processes, the most basic entitlement that these vulnerable people deserve, is to be treated with respect and dignity. This starts with training. The Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings recently recommended that Irish authorities ensure that front-line staff involved in the identification of victims of trafficking should be provided with regular training and guidance on best practice. By placing a provision in the Bill committing the State to regular training of officers and officials dealing with smuggling and trafficking, we offer these vulnerable people the best possible chance of being dealt with in a dignified and respectful manner.

I wish to highlight the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission's recommendation that those who smuggle for humanitarian purposes should be entitled to use this as an exemption from criminal prosecution rather than a mere defence from it. If the purpose of the Bill is to bring Ireland in line with the legal instruments for the prosecution of traffickers and smugglers, then to add such an exception to the Bill would only bring Ireland further in line with the 2002 European Council directive on smuggling. The current provision within section 5 is cast as a defence, rather than an exemption or exclusion, which is not in line with this European provision.

I call for the Bill to be more precise in its language to ensure that the vulnerable people who it deals with are treated fairly and with dignity. I also call for the Bill to be explicit in its non-criminalisation of smuggled people, to be clear in the rights and protections given to them and that any humanitarian efforts will not be treated as a crime but as an exemption.