Today, the Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission published its first anti-human trafficking report and made a number of critical recommendations to government.
The report highlights a number of important findings, including:
- Data confirming “Human trafficking is a serious and heinous human rights violation that is deeply gendered and racialized”
- Women are more often trafficked (66%) than men (33%) and almost all are a from a migrant background
- In 2021, trafficking was predominantly for the purposes of sexual exploitation (57%) with victims of trafficking for this purpose remaining almost exclusively female
IHREC also made a key number of recommendations for government action including:
- That the State ” proactively implement the relevant provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences)Act 2017 to reduce the demand that fosters trafficking for sexual exploitation, alongside increased support for exit pathways for people affected, including potential victims of trafficking”
- Ensure survivor voices inform the overall anti-trafficking response in particular, the new National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and National Action Plan (NAP)
- A dedicated Survivor Council should be established
- That the new National Action Plan (NAP) incorporate “concrete actions…regarding the urgent need for safe, gender-specific accommodation”
- The establishment of a new National Referral Mechanism (NRM) “must be progressed as a matter of utmost urgency and must include a dedicated child-specific NRM”
You can read the full IHREC report and reccomendations here.
