Human Trafficking Bill Published

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr. Brian Lenihan T.D., today published the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill and announced other key measures being taken by the Government to tackle the sordid crime of human trafficking.

Outlining the Government’s strategy to deal with human trafficking, Minister Lenihan said: "While there is no evidence of a substantial human trafficking problem in Ireland, any level of this despicable crime is deplorable. I am determined that all necessary actions are taken to proactively and comprehensively address this issue and that all the necessary resources of the State are geared to achieving that aim". 

Publishing the new Bill, the Minister said: "I stated shortly after my appointment that bringing this legislation forward would be a priority for me and I am pleased that, with the cooperation of the Attorney General, it has proved possible to publish the Bill at this stage.

This legislation is a key facet of the Government’s strategy to tackle this crime and I now intend to rapidly proceed with having it enacted. It will make Ireland a more hostile environment for those who might consider trafficking people here".

The draft legislation creates an offence of recruiting, transporting, transferring to another person, harbouring or causing the entry into, travel within or departure from the State of a person for the specific purpose of the trafficked person's sexual or labour exploitation or removal of his or her organs.  

Enactment of this legislation will bring Ireland into compliance with the criminal law/law enforcement elements of various EU, Council of Europe and UN human trafficking instruments.


Other strands of the Government’s strategy announced by Minister Lenihan today include:

  • A new High Level Group on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings is being established. This Group is tasked with presenting to the Minister the most appropriate and effective response to dealing with trafficking in human beings. The Group, co-chaired by the Director General of the Irish National Immigration Service and the Assistant Secretary in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform dealing with crime, will include representatives of An Garda Síochána and other Departments and Offices who have a contribution to make to the national response.

    The Committee will decide the most appropriate way to engage constructively with NGOs and other interested parties to ensure the most effective response to this crime. The NGO community will have an important role to play, particularly in relation to service provision for victims.

  • A National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings will be drafted by the High Level Group.

    It is envisaged that the National Action Plan will be drafted under four main headings:
    - Prevention of Trafficking and Awareness Raising;
    - Prosecution of the Trafficker;
    - Protection of the Victim;
    - Response to Child Trafficking

    A key goal of the National Action Plan will be that Ireland has the appropriate legislative and administrative structures in place to allow for ratification of all relevant international instruments.

    Advertisements will be placed in the national media shortly seeking the views of the public on what should be included in the Action Plan.

    Additional resources have been assigned within the Department to coordinate this work. 

  • The necessary framework for addressing the immigration aspects and treatment of victims of trafficking will be addressed by the Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill which is being drafted at present.

    In particular, in the context of the treatment of victims, it is intended that a framework will be put in place whereby a victim of trafficking can be afforded an immediate period of recovery and reflection in the State and also in circumstances where he or she wishes to participate in any criminal proceedings

    This Bill will also enable the State to comply with the relevant victim protection provisions in the Council of Europe Convention.

    Addressing victim protection issues will be an important part of the National Action Plan to combat trafficking in human beings.  

  • The Garda National Immigration Bureau will continue to deploy whatever resources are necessary to counteract the problem of human trafficking. The Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform are actively cooperating with the UK’s Operation Pentameter II which was launched earlier this month in London.  This is a coordinated campaign of law enforcement activity to tackle the trafficking of human beings for sexual exploitation into the UK.  Due to the land border and the common travel area, cooperating with and contributing to such operations makes practical sense.  Officers from An Garda Síochána and officials from the Department sit on the Operation’s Gold Command Team as observers and have developed new contacts throughout the policing and NGO community in the UK.  This operation will run for one year.
  • Ireland has been invited to be part of a European G6 Initiative against human trafficking.  This initiative involving six European countries (UK, Poland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Ireland) will be launched in Brussels next week and will run for one year.  It has four strands of activity. Ireland will lead the strand on awareness raising and will host an international meeting in Dublin in January 2008.  Ireland will also work closely with the UK on the victim protection strand.  This initiative is designed to ensure the EU becomes a more hostile environment for criminals engaged in trafficking.  Under this initiative, Ireland will launch new awareness raising campaigns in 2008.
  • An Garda Síochána continues to fully cooperate with the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) in Sheffield.  The Centre, which provides the UK Law Enforcement response, is quickly becoming a centre of excellence.  This year, officers from the UKHTC have participated in the training of more than 100 Gardaí in issues relating to human trafficking and victim identification and care.
  • Ireland will continue to fulfil its obligations to participate in the activities of many international organisations against human trafficking.  The Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and An Garda Síochána are currently participating in meetings of the Council of Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organisation for Security Cooperation in Europe Alliance against trafficking, and the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre.  This is resulting in new networks being created and assistance being provided by our international partners in policy development and operational enforcement expertise.
  •  Ireland will actively support the UN Global Initiative to fight trafficking and will be represented at the Global Forum in Vienna in February 2008. 


The Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill 2007 is available on the Oireachtas website, www.oireachtas.ie 


11 October 2007

 

 

Note for Editors

While Ireland signed the Council of Europe Convention on Human Trafficking in April 2007, ratification cannot take place until the necessary changes have been made to the legislative base, and the required administrative processes and structures have been introduced.

It is important to note that a distinction exists between human trafficking and facilitated illegal immigration.  For an offence to amount to human trafficking, there must be an element of recruitment, harbouring or transportation using threats, coercion, abduction, fraud or deception for the ultimate purpose of exploitation.


Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill 2007

Three sections of the Bill, 3, 4 and 5, create trafficking offences.

Section 3 of the Bill creates offences of trafficking in children for the purposes of labour exploitation and removal of organs for exploitative purposes.

The Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 already provides an offence of trafficking in children for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Section 4 amends that provision by inserting into that Act, in place of the existing offences, greatly strengthened offences of trafficking in children for the purpose of sexual exploitation which will fully comply with the international instruments.

Section 5 parallels sections 3 and 4 by creating specific offences of trafficking in adults for the purposes of labour or sexual exploitation or the removal of organs.

Sections 3 and 5 also provide offences of selling or purchasing persons, whether adults or children, for any purpose.

All the offences in sections 3, 4 and 5 will be punishable by a maximum prison sentence of life.

Sections 10 and 11 provide a power exists to exclude persons from the court during proceedings and to guarantee anonymity. 

An amendment in section 12 to the Criminal Evidence Act 1992 means that an alleged trafficking victim will be able to give evidence through a live television link, either here or abroad.

Section 13 makes amendments to the Sex Offender Act 2001. Failure to comply with the obligation to notify the Gardaí of one's name and address, or changes to one's name or address, what is commonly known as the sex offenders register, will be an arrestable offence and Probation Service Officers are being given power to prosecute persons who do not comply with any condition attaching to a post-release supervision order.