A GIRL under the age of 12 was among those who had been rescued from forced labour in recent months, having been trafficked to Ireland from abroad.
The girl had been engaged in domestic labour in a house in the Dublin area and was now safe in the care of the HSE, according to the executive director of the Department of Justice’s anti-human trafficking unit, Marion Walsh.
Ms Walsh was yesterday addressing a conference on strategies to tackle forced labour.
The girl is understood to be from Nigeria and to have been “working” for a Nigerian family.
She was not allowed out of the house to attend school.
“There have been several cases of children rescued from forced domestic labour situations,” said Ms Walsh. These are under investigation and prosecutions may result, she said.
She said the cases had mainly come to light as a result of tip-offs by e-mail to the Blue Blindfold website operated by the Department of Justice.
The site was receiving reports about suspected trafficking victims on a daily basis.
The Blue Blindfold campaign is a project operated by the European G6 Human Trafficking Initiative, of which Britain, Poland, Italy and Spain are also members.
Ms Walsh explained the blue blindfold represented the risk of people having their eyes closed to the crime that may be going on around them.
“The site is very active, with visits and reports on a daily and weekly basis. It indicates people are aware of trafficking and forced labour and what they entail.”
Sgt Clare McKeown of the Garda National Immigration Bureau said 90 per cent of the reports to the site concerned forced sexual exploitation.
She said reports were coming in about forced labour cases “from all parts of the country”.
Asked about cases involving children in forced labour, she said they were cases of forced domestic labour.
“The numbers are small but some are in severe situations.” She said some were “very young” but would give no further details. Sgt McKeown would not comment on whether any prosecution was pending.
Yesterday’s conference was hosted by the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI) and also was addressed by Deirdre Coughlan, an independent researcher. She presented the preliminary findings from research commissioned by the MRCI on how NGOs and State authorities can work best together to tackle forced labour.
“These are just early findings, but there are emerging concerns about how the new anti-trafficking legislation is being interpreted and implemented on the ground.”
She said there were concerns that some NGOs were reluctant to report suspected trafficking victims to the authorities, for fear the victims may be deported rather than rescued and supported.
Her findings also suggested there should be more focus on exploitation than on trafficking.
“The trafficking cases will come to light anyway with a focus on exploitation, but it would remove the fears about deportation that are there with the focus on trafficking at the moment.”
The conference was also addressed by Roger Plant, head of the International Labour Organisation’s special action programme to combat forced labour.
Further details of the Blue Blindfold campaign, and a facility to report cases of suspected trafficking or forced labour at www.blueblindfold.gov.ie
ASHA'S STORY:Asha came to Ireland from Pakistan in March 2008. She was recruited to work as a childminder in a private home.
When she arrived at the airport her employer confiscated her passport and other personal documents. She was made to work seven days a week from 8am to 11pm looking after children and also doing all of the cooking, cleaning and other household tasks. She was not given breaks or leave.
She was paid less than €20 per week. Asha’s employer also dictated when and what she could eat. She was locked in her room on several occasions when the family had visitors, and she was never allowed to leave the house on her own.
After three months of these conditions she escaped her employer’s house by jumping out of her bedroom window to avoid detection.
A passerby found her by a Luas station in a desperate situation and brought her to the local Garda station.
She is now in the process of seeking compensation through the Employment Appeals Tribunal. A prosecution was unlikely in the case, a spokeswoman for the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland – which gave details of the case – said, as the abuses took place in a private home and the burden of proof is "so high". KITTY HOLLAND
