Top story in the examiner,

[dob]

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...re-272862.html
Ireland has been named as a "destination, source, and transit country" for people being trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation in a new US State Department report.

Campaigners here said the findings of the Trafficking in Persons Report 2014 highlighted serious gaps in Ireland’s anti-trafficking laws and in how victims are dealt with.

The report, which was published yesterday, said: “Foreign trafficking victims identified in Ireland are from Nigeria, Cameroon, the Philippines, Poland, Brazil, Pakistan, South Africa, Lithuania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe, Kuwait, and other countries in Asia, and Eastern Europe.

“There has been an increase in identified Irish children subjected to sex trafficking within the country.”

It said that the Government is complying with minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and that gardaí had increased investigations of alleged trafficking offenders, including foreign diplomats, claiming: “Some domestic workers, primarily women, employed by foreign diplomats on assignment in Ireland, work under poor conditions and are at risk of labour trafficking.”

The US State Department report also highlighted how the Government has “decreased its funding for NGOs providing service to victims, and continued to prosecute a high number of non-trafficking crimes, including child molestation cases, as trafficking cases”.

In total, 44 potential trafficking victims were identified last year, compared with 48 in 2012.

Of those 44 victims, eight were subjected to forced labour and 16 were children, including 11 Irish national children who were trafficked for sexual exploitation.

In its recommendations, the US State Department urged more prosecutions to be brought; a reflection period to be granted to potential victims of trafficking; and the implementation of “the 2008 anti-trafficking law to ensure sex trafficking and forced labour offenders are held accountable through convictions and dissuasive sentences”.

Sarah Benson, the chief executive officer of Ruhama, which supports women affected by prostitution and trafficking, said: “We concur with many of the concerns outlined in this year’s TIP report, particularly those dealing with the identification and protection of victims.

“These concerns include the flawed identification process, the low quality of housing provided for victims, and the cumbersome referral process.”

The Immigrant Council of Ireland said traffickers were exploiting Irish failings and that urgent action was needed.

Chief executive Denise Charlton, said: “Once again the response of the Government to one of the biggest crimes of our time has been found to fall short of what is required.”

Hilkka Becker, senior solicitor with the Immigrant Council, said: “We know from the work of the International Labour Organisation and the EU that trafficking for sexual exploitation is one of the most lucrative crimes for gangs — and Ireland must not be complacent in responding to it.”

The Immigrant Council said that an Anti-Trafficking Czar should be appointed and new laws to target those buying sex introduced.

Read the report here.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

[Curvaceous Kate]

If these are real trafficked children. Do they still think they will be able to find others after the law has changed? Surely what this says is that the current methods work and that the lines of communication are open? Why fix a problem that is not broken? Give the pimps tougher sentences when they find them and I'm sorry, but no way are all the ladies from all those places working here against their will. The word trafficked really does need re-evaluating.

[Petros]

All this media talk about people being trafficked, children subjected to forced labour and sexual exploitation does nothing to help the cause of the genuine sex worker in Ireland! All it does is muddy the waters and leave the uninitiated thinking that this industry is a bad thing and should be eliminated!

We really some sort of a scales of balance here, as it is it is a one sided story as far as anyone who does not know what this industry is really like!

[Davidontour]

All this media talk about people being trafficked, children subjected to forced labour and sexual exploitation does nothing to help the cause of the genuine sex worker in Ireland! All it does is muddy the waters and leave the uninitiated thinking that this industry is a bad thing and should be eliminated!

We really some sort of a scales of balance here, as it is it is a one sided story as far as anyone who does not know what this industry is really like!

Unfortunately that's exactly what the antis want. The trafficking issue applies to a small minority of sex workers, but the antis try to use it as leverage to demonise everyone. It's notable that in Canada, where they are also attempting to criminalise the buyer, trafficking is barely mentioned. It's a case of whatever works, whether it's relevant or even truthful, is fair use for those opposed to sex work.

[nibb]

Where we're all these do gooders down through the years or why aren't they investigating what happened in our society to women and children

[randy]

I see that the Irish Examiner today also published photographs, names and nationality of the girl's charged with ''escorting'' in Letterkenny.

[SteveB]

Quote from report, "destination, source, and transit country" for people being trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation."
"Sexual and labour exploitation". I would suspect more "labour" than "sexual".

The Examiner article, as usual, sensationalises the sexual aspect and downplays the labour exploitation.

Quote, “Some domestic workers, primarily women, employed by foreign diplomats on assignment in Ireland, work under poor conditions and are at risk of labour trafficking.” Such people are being exploited for their labour. They are unlikely to be involved, I would think, in sex work and even less likely to end up advertising on Escort Ireland.

Sexual trafficking exists, of course, and we need to be aware of it, but this is hardly a rational exposé or analysis of it.

"The Immigrant Council said that an Anti-Trafficking Czar should be appointed". Nice job for somebody.

I suspect America has enough trouble at home, without them telling us how to run our country.

[SteveB]

U.S. must practice what it preaches as it judges others on human trafficking

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cn...ing/?hpt=hp_t4

[Catriona]

It was also in the paper on the same day:http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...us-272810.html

[Empirical]

It's a US report. I don't deny that trafficking exists, but it so often seems to be whipped up into a moral panic by the Americans. Never mind that much of it may not actually involve coercion, that the people aren't 'chattel slaves', but that most serious, genuine trafficking isn't actually for prostitution, such details are of little significance when it's a war on sex led by the religious right. I wonder, is Ireland meant to be the hub for the traffick in the (entirely fictitious) 40,000 whores who are transported round the world to major sporting events and political congresses? I guess a couple of hundred extra jumbo flights into and out of Dublin would be unnoticed.

At times, it seems that any US city or town is vying to be the trafficking centre of the country. Indeed, a trafficking centre can easily be recognised; (1) there is a nearby airport, and (2) there are roads, the better to import and distribute the goods.

However, I was surprised by one claim—I forget where it is—that a place was clearly a trafficking centre because it had a canal. Since reading this, I can't get the image of Jack Sparrow sailing a Spanish galleon heavily laden with, er, cargo out of my mind.