THE DETENTION in prison over the Christmas period of a 22-year-old Nigerian recently trafficked into Ireland to work in the sex trade has been deplored by Ruhama, the Dublin-based group that helps women involved in prostitution.
In a statement yesterday, Gerardine Rowley, spokeswoman for the organisation, said: "We are concerned that a woman who has been identified as a possible victim of human trafficking is continued to be incarcerated by the State.
"It must be understood that the fact that some women will not have legal documentation is due to the very fact that they are victims of trafficking."
Ms Rowley added that Ruhama is calling on the Government to follow the recommendations of the Council of Europe Convention on Human Trafficking and introduce a non-punishment provision within the Immigration, Residency and Protection Bill which is currently going through the Oireachtas.
This provision, she said, would excuse the victims of trafficking from criminal liability for involvement in unlawful activities committed as a direct consequence of their situation as trafficked persons.
The Ruhama statement follows an appearance at Castlebar District Court earlier this week by a woman carrying a passport bearing the name of Edith Jonho who was was arrested by gardaí in Castlebar last month under the Immigration Act 2004 because she did not have documentation or a passport.
Garda Insp Michael Murray told the court that the passport carried by the woman had been checked by handwriting experts and turned out to be a forgery. As a result gardaí could not identify her.
Refusing an application for bail, Judge Aeneas McCarthy said he couldn't grant bail to someone whose identity the State or the court did not know.
The judge remanded the woman in custody at the Dochas Centre, the purpose-built female prison, at Phibsboro, Dublin, to the next sitting of Ballyhaunis District Court, Co Mayo, on January 6th next. The Nigerian woman's solicitor, Aidan Crowley told a court hearing earlier this month that the woman had travelled from Lagos to Ireland on September 28th in the company of two strangers, a man and a woman.
Mr Crowley said his client claimed her documentation had been removed from her upon arrival in Ireland.
After spending five days at a house in Dublin she was transferred to a house in Castlebar where she stayed with another lady.
She had been detained in that house for "a particular purpose" and hadn't left the house until the day of her arrest, Mr Crowley stated.