The voluntary organisation Ruhama has said it saw 32 women last year which it believes had been trafficked to Ireland for forced prostitution.
Geraldine Rowley, assistant director of Ruhama, an organisation which works with prostitutes, said it believed it was only seeing the tip of the iceberg and the problem could be far larger.
The Ruhama figures emerged as Minister for Justice Michael McDowell acknowledged Ireland was "at risk" from human trafficking. At the launch of a campaign to heighten awareness about the issue, the Minister said the Garda had uncovered a "small number of cases".
He said a recent United Nations report had ranked Ireland at the lower end of destination of transit countries for trafficking in western Europe. However, Ireland was at risk.
A Department of Justice/Garda working group report released yesterday says there were indications that eastern European nationals had been involved in trafficking and attempted trafficking activity. It says that the indications were that in Ireland trafficking in human beings was taking place, but on a much smaller scale than illegal immigration.
The report states that on the basis of Garda evidence and EU trends, "Ireland continues to be at risk of human trafficking especially from Bulgaria, Romania and Lithuania". "The Garda have encountered a small number of cases of eastern European women being trafficked into Ireland for the purpose of sexual exploitation within their own ethnic communities," it states.
The report says two Chinese nationals, previously resident in the Republic, had been charged with serious offences in Northern Ireland in connection with alleged trafficking for the purposes of prostitution. Det Chief Supt Derek Byrne of the Garda National Immigration Bureau said yesterday that three investigations in this area were currently "live".
Ruhama said yesterday the women it believed had been trafficked to Ireland had come from countries such as Albania, Moldova, Lithuania, Mongolia, Nigeria, Brazil and Romania.
Ms Rowley said that it was important to realise these were only the women who came to their attention and not the extent of trafficking into the country.
"Most women we meet were in situations with at least five to 10 other women so multiply those figures and the figure is much bigger." She said Ruhama also read of cases in the media they knew nothing about. "So we are certainly only meeting the tip of the iceberg."
The new campaign organised by Crimestoppers will involve posters and business cards to heighten awareness of human trafficking. Posters encourage anyone who has been trafficked to contact the free and confidential Crimestoppers number at 1800-250025.
The posters will be displayed at ports, airports, railway stations, bus stations, hospital A&E departments, hostels, pubs and Reception and Integration Agency centres. They will be in five languages: Romanian, Russian, Chinese, French and Portuguese.