A VIETNAMESE boy suspected of having been brought to Ireland by human traffickers is to remain in custody pending a continued Garda investigation into his background.
Samples of his fingerprints are to be sent to the Vietnamese embassy in London to see if it can shed light on his identity, the Children’s Court was told yesterday.
The teenage boy, an unaccompanied minor believed to be aged 16, is in Ireland without his parents, and has no passport. He had been remanded in custody earlier this month following his arrest in connection with a burglary at Galtymore Road, in Drimnagh, Dublin, on June 2nd and failing to produce identity documents within seven days of arriving in the State, under the Immigration Act.
The court has heard he left Vietnam with his parents in early childhood and travelled to Russia and several other European states before arriving in Ireland, after “money changed hands” with an “agent”.
His silence over how he came to be in Ireland was a result of his being in fear and it is believed he was “a victim of human trafficking.” Judge Patrick McMahon was told yesterday by prosecuting Garda Darren Coller that a group of people arrived at the courthouse that morning claiming to be the boy’s family. However, when he tried to question them about their relationship to the boy they left immediately.
And the court has heard that Garda Coller’s station has been receiving suspicious phone calls from people making inquiries about the boy.
Interpol has been contacted to find out if he is on its missing children’s list, but that inquiry has “turned up blank”.