Crime & Law

Gardai identify at least eight victims of labour exploitation in inquiry into human trafficking in north Cork

Detectives continue questioning three members of Eastern European organised crime group arrested at the weekend

Gardaí have identified eight victims, but they have discovered the names of many others on documentation that they seized from the gang. Photograph: Alan Betson

Barry Roche
Wed Mar 6 2024 - 19:00

Gardaí have identified at least eight victims of labour trafficking as they continue to question three men arrested in Cork and Roscommon as part of an investigation into the exploitation of foreign workers brought to Ireland by an eastern European gang.

Gardaí on Saturday arrested two of the men in north Cork, and a third man in Roscommon, as part of an investigation into the activities of an organised crime gang with links to Czechia and Slovakia. All three are being held in separate Garda stations in north Cork and Cork city.

The three, who are in their 30s and 40s, were being detained under Section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, which allows gardaí hold suspects for a maximum of seven days, comprising two initial periods of 24 hours followed by an extension of 72 hours and a further extension of 48 hours.

Gardaí applied at a special sitting of Mallow District Court on Sunday night for a 72-hour extension, and Judge Colm Roberts granted the extension after hearing that gardaí had extensive documentation and evidence from phones and laptops that they needed to put to the suspects.

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According to an informed source, the investigation is centred on the trafficking of foreign workers in their 20s and their 30s – both men and women – from eastern Europe to Ireland to work as general operatives in factories and other businesses.

[ Three arrested on suspicion of human trafficking after raids, involving more than 100 gardaí, in Cork and Roscommon ]

“Basically, what’s happening is these people are being recruited to work here in Ireland with the promises of good wages and paid for accommodation – it’s all organised by these fellows operating as a recruitment agency, but the wages are paid to accounts controlled by the recruitment agency,” said the source.

“The workers are given only a nominal fee and provided with food. The business model behind all this is that they are told they have to work off the cost of their flight to Ireland, the exorbitant rates they are being charged for the accommodation and the cost of being transport to and from work.”

There are around five businesses involved and the owners were all unaware of what was happening – they hired the foreign workers in good faith

According to the source, the people being brought to Ireland are highly vulnerable individuals, coming from economically deprived areas in eastern Europe and with no English, they are totally at the mercy of those who recruited them and brought them to Ireland.

“There are around five businesses involved and the owners were all unaware of what was happening – they hired the foreign workers in good faith, thinking the recruitment agency was legitimate and never realised the agency were effectively controlling and exploiting the workers for their own gain.”

Gardaí have identified eight victims, but they have discovered the names of many others on documentation that they seized from the gang. However, they have been unable to trace these other workers, so they are focusing on those they have been able to identify and trace to build the case.

It is understood that the arrests and searches at the weekend, which involved more than 100 members of the force, are a follow-on from an earlier operation in north Cork in July 2020 when gardaí rescued three men suspected of being the victims of human trafficking when they raided houses in the Charleville and Tullylease areas.

Those 2020 garda raids followed contact from Welsh Police after a young Slovakian woman went into a police station in Wales to report that her brother was being held against his will by a group of her countrymen who had taken his passport and were forcing him to work at a location in north Cork.

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times

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