Analysis: As available data on all forms of exploitation in Ireland is currently poor, the real scale of the issue remains hidden
By James Windle, Kevin Sweeney and Kevin Hosford, UCC
Human trafficking for criminal activity is a complex criminal justice, safeguarding, and human rights issue. A 2013 amendment to the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 expanded the definition of human trafficking to include 'forcing a person to engage' in ‘an activity that constitutes an offence and that is engaged in for financial gain or that by implication is engaged in for financial gain’.
While trafficking for criminal activity was legislated for over a decade ago, it remains one of the least researched or understood forms of human trafficking. Most people limit their conception of human trafficking to the sexual exploitation of women.
Irish research has been mapping drug-related intimidation, which can involve exploitation, and child criminal exploitation. This body of work is important but seldom examines the exploitation of adults. Criminal networks exploit a broad range of vulnerable children and adults, and sometimes change the demographic of those they are exploiting to avoid detection. For example, some British networks moved from exploiting migrant labour in industrial cannabis farms to exploiting single parents living in economically deprived communities. Drug traffickers have changed drug mules to avoid detection, from female to male, and young to old.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commissioner Noeline Blackwell discusses key findings of report into the growing problem of human trafficking
All victims will be vulnerable but will present different vulnerabilities. Some will be deceived or coerced early in the process, others consent and are coerced once they question their exploiters. Some never realise they are being exploited. Such complexity is common to all forms of human trafficking.
Practitioners reported that ‘trafficking for criminal exploitation is an area where potential victims of trafficking are often not recognised’ in Ireland. Between 2013 and 2021, just 7% of the 475 individuals identified as victims of human trafficking were for criminal exploitation.
According to the CSO, the Gardaí recorded 2,495 offences related to cultivation or manufacture of drugs during that period. While most will have been for small-scale cannabis cultivation, if 5% of recorded incidents involved an exploited victim of human trafficking, and each farm exploited one person, then 124 victims could have been uncovered. This is a rough, back-of-the-envelope, estimate which does not account for the exploitation of people to conduct other criminal activities. It may, however, give some indication of the gap between actual and identified victims.
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From RTÉ News, 30% rise in those impacted by sexual exploitation
All official figures are 'records of decision' rather than reflections of actual events, and often speak to collecting institutions priorities and resources. As such, the scarcity of identified victims may provide an indication, not of lack of victims, but of how human trafficking is understood by state agencies, and society more generally, and the level of priority afforded to trafficking for criminal activities. In 2023, nine victims of trafficking for criminal activity were identified. That this is the highest number in a decade may be indicative of an increased awareness by the Gardaí and other agencies.
Identifying victims of trafficking for criminal activities is not easy. As human traffickers seek to maintain secrecy, there are few consistent and reliable sources of data available to establish the scope of the problem. Trafficking for criminal activities can be even more hidden as it needs to avoid detection. For example, brothels exploiting women are advertised and fishing vessels exploiting labour are subject to official inspections. Cannabis farms, on the other hand, work hard to remain undetected to avoid arrest or robbery. Drug traffickers also try to avoid mules being identified, although occasionally some are sacrificed to allow other mules to enter the state undetected.
Read more: How out-of-town drug dealers are exploiting vulnerable people in Ireland
Part of the problem lies in the lack of training provided to front-line workers, who may be unable to distinguish real-life human trafficking from stereotypes. The literature often discusses the difficulties of differentiating prostitution from forced sexual exploitation, but the same is true of those consenting to courier, sell or cultivate drugs and those being forced, coerced or deceived into the act - especially as victims often initially consent and experience force and coercion later in the process.
One Spanish study found that frontline practitioners often limited their conceptualisation of human trafficking to sexual exploitation of women, and several studies have discovered that the number of victims identified increases after front-line practitioners are trained to identify signs of human trafficking. The situation may improve after the revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is implemented, and the further rollout of training as part of the National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Human Trafficking (2023-2027).
As the available data on all forms of exploitation in this country is poor, the scale of the issue remains hidden. Beyond this, the Irish government has yet to agree on a standardised and unambiguous definition of trafficking for criminal activities. It’s hard to count something if we do not know what we are counting. The short answer to how prevalent is human trafficking for criminal activity in Ireland – we simply do not know.
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Dr James Windle is a lecturer in Criminology and Director of the BA Criminology degree at UCC. Dr Kevin Sweeney is a Lecturer in Criminology and Director of the MA in Criminology programme at UCC. Dr Kevin Hosford is a Lecturer in Criminology at UCC.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
