More than 20 children have been victims of sex and labour trafficking in Ireland in the last year, a new report has found.
The Trafficking in Persons Report of the US state department found that 48 trafficking victims were identified in past year and almost half were children.
Of the 48 victims, 23 were children, and 19 of these were being abused in the commercial sex trade.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland has called on the Government to respond to the report.
The council also wants the Government to adopt measures to better identify victims of trafficking.
It is also seeking the establishment of a national database to improve the flow of information between Government officials and frontline authorities as well as better access to justice for victims.
Denise Charlton of the Immigrant Council of Ireland said: “Once again the US state department has confirmed that Ireland remains a ‘destination, source and transit country for women, men and children subjected to sex-trafficking and forced labour’”.
According to the annual global trafficking report, Ireland is at the centre of a sex-trafficking web which reaches across three continents and trafficks men, women and children for abuse.
Ms Charlton said the Government need to take action on this to “ensure that those still trapped in a life of threats, abuse and violence are offered hope.”
The report found that there has been an increase in identified Irish children subjected to sex trafficking within the country. It also said that victims of forced labour in the domestic or restaurant services “are subjected to excessively long hours from employers who withhold personal documents”.
Although the report was complimentary of the Government’s compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and the funding for anti-trafficking activities, it warned that, “in some cases authorities failed to make prompt determinations of potential victims’ eligibility for services.”
The report also cited that, under the national referral mechanism, potential victims must be referred to law enforcement before shelter, health, and legal services can be provided.
Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) reported that, in some cases, authorities took up to a year from the time an NGO referred a potential victim to law enforcement deciding whether they were eligible as ‘potential victim’. This severely obstructed the identification of victims and their access to services.
NGOs also reported concerns over the low quality of housing for potential victims and the practice of moving victims to different hostels.