IT IS a virtual certainty that some of the 388 immigrant children who vanished from HSE care over the last seven years have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, a conference in Cork has heard.
This is despite a widespread belief that child trafficking is not an issue in Ireland.
At the weekend conference on child trafficking in University College Cork, Mary Nicholson of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) said that figures from the Department of Justice showed 441 children in HSE care went missing between 2000 and 2007 with 388 still unaccounted for.
The vast majority were foreign nationals who arrived in the country without a parental figure. They included five young Kenyan girls who vanished in June 2007, the youngest of whom was just 11 years old.
Ms Nicholson said “24/7” supervision was not being given to vulnerable children from outside the jurisdiction who have been placed in HSE care. “The development of safe 24-hour adequately supervised accommodation is essential. Those 388 kids who went missing all went missing from HSE accommodation. It’s insane that that is allowed to happen. A lot of the time they are living in hostels where there isn’t child care workers onsite 24/7.
“Most of the missing kids are non-Irish nationals. We have to ask ourselves why is that happening? Part of the reason is that these children are incredibly vulnerable. I think we would be naïve to think that Ireland doesn’t have an issue with trafficking. Every country does.”
Ms Nicholson said it was difficult to determine the extent of child trafficking here. But it was certainly going on, she said, and the authorities only knew “the tip of the iceberg” .
The ISPCC has called for the establishment of a 24-hour “reception” team of trained staff at ports and airports to address child trafficking. Ms Nicholson said gardaí and customs officials cannot be the only people responsible for combating child trafficking.
The disappearance of five Kenyan girls from HSE care did not even register in the national media, she said.
“The reason why 388 children are missing is because they don’t have a voice.
“They don’t have a mother or father or aunt or uncle or anyone to speak for them. If that was five young Irish children who went missing you can rest assured it would be on the Six One news, as it should be.
“These are five Kenyan girls who in 2007 they had been in HSE care and were off on some day trip to a Brownie camp. Five of them, the youngest being 11 and the oldest 17, went missing from the same place and no one knows where they are. The concern is that they are at risk of trafficking.”
Ms Nicholson said the Government was working to address child trafficking but there was still a long way to go.
Until recently, Irish laws barely addressed the problem of trafficking, Nusha Yonkova of the Immigrant Council of Ireland told Saturday’s conference.
However, she said this situation was about to change with the signing of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act, which will come into force on June 8th.
The Act creates separate offences of trafficking in children for the purpose of their labour exploitation or the removal of their organs; trafficking in children for the purpose of sexual exploitation; and trafficking in adults for the purposes of their sexual or labour exploitation or the removal of their organs. Among the new offences it creates are the selling or purchasing of a child for any purpose.
It also makes it an offence to sell or buy a person for any purpose.
Ms Yonkova said Ireland was the only country in Europe to have legislation in place which could see a trafficker imprisoned for life.
Marion Walsh, executive director of the Department of Justice-run Anti-Trafficking Unit said the role of the unit was to ensure a co-ordinated response to human trafficking. She told delegates that Ireland is set to take part in an awareness-raising campaign on child trafficking.