Ireland has been downgraded in an annual report which ranks countries on their handling of human trafficking.
The 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report says while the Government has made significant efforts, the country does not meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.
This report is published annually by the US State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking.
For two decades it has ranked governments on their perceived efforts to acknowledge and combat human trafficking.
Nations are divided into three tiers based on their compliance with standards in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
Ireland used to be in tier one, but two years ago it was downgraded to tier two, with Romania and Bosnia.
This latest report says that Ireland is now on a tier two watch list.
Among the issues outlined, the report says the Government has continued to have systematic deficiencies in victim identification, referral and assistance.
It also says it continued to lack specialised accommodation and adequate services for victims.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland has said the Government's continued policy of housing of trafficking victims in direct provision is massively problematic.
Ruhama, which works with women affected by prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation, said people must be under no illusions that sex trafficking is happening in every city, town and village across the country.
The Department of Justice and Equality said it is "deeply disappointed" at Ireland's ranking and said "combatting the terrible crime of human trafficking is a priority for Ireland".
In a statement, the department said great importance is attached to the work of multilateral international organisations who are active in tackling human trafficking and Ireland will continue to work with its partners on the issue.
It said significant efforts are being made to address human trafficking in Ireland, including training gardaí and immigration officers, awareness raising initiatives, funding to NGOs providing services to victims and other measures, which will continue.
It added that "trafficking is a difficult crime to detect and prosecute and there are no simple solutions".
The department said that while the report is correct that there have been no convictions specifically for trafficking, there have been convictions in relation to associated charges.
A specialised Garda Unit, the Human Trafficking Investigation and Co-ordination Unit (HTICU), is in place and the department said it understands that "a significant number of criminal investigations are currently being pursued and a number of prosecutions have commenced".
The statement says officials will study the report and its recommendations in detail and it will be taken into account in work to renew the National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Human Trafficking.
The statement concludes by noting that the draft Programme for Government includes two commitments relevant to human trafficking - enactment of legislation encompassing relevant EU measures and the UN Protocol against the smuggling and trafficking of migrants; and a commitment to adopt and implement a comprehensive strategy to combat trafficking of women and girls.
Identification of victims a weak link - ICI
The Immigrant Council of Ireland has said the identification of victims of human trafficking is one of the weak links in the Irish response to the crime.
Dr Nusha Yonhova, a gender and anti-trafficking expert at the council, said the evaluation while disappointing, is not surprising due to the lack of progress on developments in the field.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, she said that that she, like many other professionals in the field, is "very embarrassed" that Ireland has been downgraded in this report.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland says it is hopeful the incoming government will place human trafficking high on the list of priorities and take concrete actions to improve Ireland's future evaluation.
Ms Yonhova said that since 2015 the courts service and others have given "very clear signals" that we are not developing an approach in the right way.
She said as well as identifying that Ireland is not meeting minimum requirements in dealing with human trafficking, it has also placed Ireland on a watchlist for consideration of further downgrading to a tier three list if there are no improvements.
Ms Yonhova said training has improved but the problems with the systematic and underlying approach to victims of trafficking and achieving prosecutions remain.
She said that anti-trafficking legislation is intended to uncover hidden pockets of exploitation, to save those who are exploited and punish those who exploit them.
However, she described it as a "unique crime" as victims have to be identified as such by trained specialists and this remains one of he weak links in the system.
