TWO-YEAR-OLD laws on human trafficking have not yet resulted in any convictions, the Labour Party women’s section said yesterday.
The Human Trafficking Act 2008 was enacted in June 2008, but so far there have been no convictions under it.
The Act creates separate offences for the trafficking of adults and children for labour and sexual exploitation.
It also makes it an offence to sell or offer for sale, or to purchase or offer to purchase, any person, adult or child, for any purpose.
In June 2008, the US Trafficking in Persons Report classified Ireland for the first time as a destination country for women, men and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
An Immigrant Council of Ireland study carried out in 2008 identified more than 100 trafficked girls and women between January 2007 and September 2008.
Catherine Dunne, chair of Labour Women, said human trafficking has no place in Ireland and when convictions under the Act begin, that is the signal Ireland will be sending out.
“We do not want this piece of legislation to be like the law against marital rape which was enacted in 1990, but only secured the first conviction in 2002,” she said.
She complemented the work of the anti-trafficking unit and said she understood 10 prosecutions had been initiated.
Ms Dunne said she understood there was a wish to ensure the first cases under the legislation are successful, but it was a pity that in one recent high-profile case where an individual convicted in Wales of controlling brothels in Ireland from Wales could not be charged with trafficking offences because they happened in Ireland.
“This was despite the fact that he pleaded guilty to conspiring to controlling prostitutes, including women trafficked into Ireland from Portugal, Venezuela, Brazil and Nigeria,” she said.
