Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I of course welcome this Bill. It is of a technical nature, but it does some important things. The Minister of State discussed the difficulty of obtaining prosecutions under section 2 of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000. There have been prosecutions in that regard, but the Minister of State's point was that it is often difficult to prove effectively that the trafficking or bringing of people into the State was for gain. It can be very difficult to prove for the obvious reason that the payment would have been made in other places and in ways that are difficult to detect. I refer to establishing a reverse burden of proof, in effect, and then providing a defence where people may be engaging in humanitarian assistance or giving aid to asylum seekers without levying a charge. Those defences are necessary in that context of reversing the burden of proof and they are very welcome.Those defences are very necessary in that context of reversing the burden of proof and they are very welcome. I also welcome the avoidance of criminalisation of the smuggled persons in question. We are all aware of the crisis in Afghanistan. It must be in our minds when discussing legislation that touches on these types of issues. I learned recently of the plight of female judges in Afghanistan, many of whom have fled to Greece and will need to be resettled. It strikes me that they are a particularly vulnerable category of people given that they would be targeted for past decisions and so on. I hope that the Irish Government would be generous and proactive in playing its part in assisting resettling female judges from Afghanistan at this particular time.

Senator Horkan mentioned the US Trafficking in Persons report. I too want to raise the issue of human trafficking. I acknowledge the distinction that has been drawn between trafficking and smuggling where it is clearly a consensual activity. It is fair to say that people smuggling is a subset of human trafficking. There are many commonalities and the issues intersect. We need to reflect on where Ireland stands in the international standings when it comes to combatting human trafficking. I raised this issue in the Seanad prior to the summer recess when the Trafficking in Persons report was published by the US Department of State in July. I remind the House that that report exposed devastating failings in our country's attitude to the trafficking and exploitation of poor and vulnerable people and of our status as a destination and source of people smuggling. While this legislation is welcome in that it fulfils some of our international obligations and seeks to correct a loophole in our law in the area of people smuggling, we have a long way to go in terms of the wider issue of the part that we must play in combatting human trafficking. The Trafficking in Persons report paints a picture of a basket case country which is in the same league as dictatorships and banana republics in terms of tackling this problem. The US Department of State very helpfully produces a colour coded map of Europe. Where we stand on that map should be a cause of profound shame and embarrassment to policymakers here and to all of us in the legislative process. Countries are shaded in green, yellow, amber and red according to their performance in dealing with this crisis. Ireland is shaded in amber, alongside Belarus and Azerbaijan. The only country ranked worse than us is Russia, which is shaded in red. What does that say about us as a country that increasingly likes to talk up its human rights credentials internationally and our supposed tolerance and respect for human rights. The UK, which is increasingly a bogeyman for our entire political class, from Fine Gael on the one side to Sinn Féin on the other, ranks quite well in the Trafficking in Persons, TiP, report despite its supposedly porous borders and well publicised problems with illegal immigration.

The most shocking aspect of people smuggling in Ireland, and of trafficking in Ireland, is how common and every day it is. We all unknowingly, probably, meet or interact with victims of such activities on a weekly basis. I mentioned in July that I had been in touch with a religious sister who assists victims of trafficking and who made the truly chilling comment to me that there is not a town in Ireland that does not have victims of human trafficking working in it. Sadly, that is borne out by the TiP report, which found that victims of smuggling are being exploited in Ireland in domestic work, the restaurant industry, nail salons, food processing, waste management, fishing and seasonal agriculture, and car washing services. These are sectors we all interact with every week, if not every day. Needless to say, victims are also being exploited in criminal enterprises such is the cultivation of cannabis.

We urgently need action to address this situation which is a direct result, or in part a direct result, of the failure of successive Irish Governments. How else could we explain that we are in such a dreadful position compared with other European democracies? Some 1,700 years ago St. Augustine reminded us that a country which measures itself by its own common interests only and not by the standards of justice is not structurally different from a well organised band of robbers. Sadly, Irish foreign policy increasingly lacks a moral core. Increasingly, we do what suits ourselves at the expense of justice. We virtue-signal at home, strut the world stage and appoint special envoys without proper consultation, all to veneer that we are somehow on board with authentic human rights. Simultaneously, our leaders are rubbing shoulders with members of the Chinese politburo and having tea with ministers from Iran, regimes that have no concept of human rights as we know them. We need a reality check. I understand the trade imperatives, but it cannot be a nod to human rights on one hand while winking for trade on the other. We need to ask some serious questions in this country about how much we really care about human rights. The sexy stuff that we can parade, that does not cost us anything, is a form of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have referred to as "cheap grace". The hard stuff involves making sacrifices, facing up to the fact that as much as we value trade there are certain things to which we cannot close our eyes, one of which that I have been banging about incessantly, is the treatment by the Chinese authorities of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. I add to that its deconstruction of democracy in human rights in Hong Kong, its oppression of people of many religious faiths and its utter denial of that dimension of human rights and dignity that is involved in people's spiritual and philosophical search. Hardly anything is said about that. We get reassured by our leaders that they raise it in the appropriate forum, but if one looks at all the former Government Ministers and leaders of this country who seem to be finding their way onto international boards that have to do with Chinese cultural and economic exchange, the political establishment, or the orientation of the political establishment, in this country is very clear. That has to change. We cannot claim that we are a little country that has been a big player on the human rights scene and at the same time turn our back on that heritage all in the interests of trade and economic advancement. We have some serious questions to ask ourselves.