Address by Minister for Justice and Equality Immigrant Council of Ireland – EU Anti-Trafficking Day Event

Distinguished Guests, members of the Oireachtas, colleagues.

I am very pleased to be here today at this event to mark EU Anti-trafficking Day, which falls tomorrow, the eighteenth (18th) of October.

This is one of a series of events I am undertaking to mark EU Anti-trafficking Day. I have met in recent weeks with Dr Myria Vassiliadou, the European Union’s Anti-trafficking Coordinator and Ambassador CdeBaca, President Obama’s appointee to lead their international response to trafficking. Also, this week, both the Garda Commissioner and I addressed a two day Conference for senior Garda management that was specifically focused on this most heinous crime. I am aware that the valuable presentations made to this conference by ICI and other prominent NGOs working with victims of trafficking were much appreciated by the senior officers present.

Every year we are identifying victims of trafficking, in every part of this country. While the number of victims that we are identifying each year are relatively small, I have no doubt that there are more victims out there. Human trafficking happens here, and we must take every step to prevent it.

We must take action to prevent human trafficking, to protect it’s victims and prosecute those who perpetrate this evil crime. To achieve these aims we must work in partnership across Government, internationally, with other state agencies and, importantly, with civil society.

What is clear from both our own statistics and at a European level is that it is predominantly women and girls who are victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation that are being identified. Eurostat have indicated that nearly ten thousand (10,000) suspected victims were identified across Europe in a single year. Nearly two thirds of these victims were women and girls trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation. While the reported figures in Ireland are quite low, some forty four (44) suspected victims were identified in 2013, the pattern of exploitation is similar. It is women and girls who are being trafficked and being sexually exploited who make up the significant majority of victims identified here. Trafficking is a difficult crime to detect, and as I have already said, these figures are no doubt an underestimate. That is why, at the Garda Conference this week, I have emphasised the importance of intelligence led operations, international cooperation and a strategy of ‘following the money’ to the successful prosecution of traffickers.

Victims of trafficking often have very little English, are in a strange country and are very frightened. You can only imagine how difficult it would be for them to know how to access support services or vindicate their rights. For that reason the Irish Presidency of the EU, in the first half of 2013, worked closely with the EU Commission on an important project to develop a handbook that outlines the rights of victims of trafficking in human beings under EU law.

For the first time, this handbook set out the rights of victims in simple language that should be understandable to practitioners on the ground and victims themselves. Building on this document my Department are revising our current information booklets on victims’ services to lay emphasis on the fact these are rights and to outline how such rights can be vindicated in this jurisdiction.

I am aware that the Immigrant Council are currently undertaking an EU funded research project focused on the importance of upholding the rights of victims of trafficking, and the role that early legal intervention can play in that. I want to welcome in particular the many partner organisations in that project who are present here today. I very much look forward to seeing the result of your project.

Of course, prevention is better than cure. We would all prefer a situation where no one ever has to vindicate their rights as a victim. Preventing trafficking occurring in the first place is our goal.

Reducing the demand for the services of victims of trafficking is a significant concern that I share with Ambassador CdeBaca and the EU Anti-Trafficking Co-ordinator, with whom I discussed this issue. If the demand for the services of victims can be reduced, and hopefully eliminated, the business model of traffickers can be dismantled. And be under no illusion, for them this is a business; traffickers operate only to make money from human misery. And those who purchase the services of these victims fuel this evil trade; they too bear the responsibility for the lives stolen by trafficking.

We have in place in Ireland legislation that criminalises the use of the services of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. However, this legislation only covers situations where the purchaser knows or had reasonable grounds for believing that the person is a victim of trafficking. Proving that such knowledge exists can be extremely difficult.

In the near future, I will be bringing forward a new Sexual Offences Bill which will include provisions to combat the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography; it addresses issues such as grooming and harassment. In that context I am also examining what further measures could be taken to reduce the demand for human trafficking, of children and adults.

Many of you will be aware of the Nordic approach to legislation concerning prostitution which focuses on the criminalisation of the purchase of sex. I am examining very carefully the potential for legislative measures of this kind to support our efforts to reduce human trafficking. As well as seeking to reduce the number of people who seek the services of women in prostitution, such legislation can also have an important normative effect. It can send a message, that this is not an acceptable thing to do. Over time this can change attitudes, particularly of young people.

Of course, legislation of this kind is not simple, nor uncontroversial; it is an issue on which reasonable people may have profound disagreement. Across Europe and, indeed, the world, different approaches have been taken. However, I am determined that any measure that may reduce the toll of human misery that results from trafficking is considered.

I believe that public education and awareness can also play an important role in reducing the demand for the services of victims of trafficking; as I have said, changing mindsets is important. My Department is working with a range of partners on an EU funded project that, among other things, will involve a campaign aimed at men and boys focused on the impacts of human trafficking on women.

Human Trafficking requires that policies on a wide variety of issues are coordinated and consistent with the shared objective of preventing and combating trafficking. It is impossible for any one organisation to tackle it alone. It has been obvious from early on that a multi-disciplinary approach, across Government and civil society, is required. My Department carries out this role and we will be publishing, this year, a second National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat the Trafficking of Human Beings in Ireland. This Plan will have regard to international evaluations of Ireland’s response to human trafficking and there will be a process of consultation with relevant State, Non-Governmental and International organisations prior to its finalisation.

As a state I think we have worked well in developing our response to trafficking in all it forms. We have good consultative structures and well co-ordinated action. However, I have no doubt that there is more that we can do. I am committed to continuing the partnership process already in place and working with civil society to end this scourge of modern day slavery.

Thank you.