Ireland's Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has expressed concern to the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) over a "highly inadequate provision" of accommodation for victims of trafficking in Ireland.
IHREC is the National Rapporteur on the Trafficking of Human Beings and is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the new, victim-centred National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for human trafficking, which aims to provide support to trafficking victims.
The commission told GRETA that Ireland continued to struggle with identification, support, and protection of child victims of trafficking.
While it welcomed increased provisions for child victims, the commission stressed the need for a child-specific identification process and the absence of any age-estimation assessment.
It also welcomed the establishment of the first gender-specific specialised shelter in Ireland, which has eight beds, it said this was not enough to meet need.
It pointed out that direct provision was "wholly unsuited" to the needs of victims, in particular females.
The commission also highlighted the potential impact of domestic implementation of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum on people at risk and victims of trafficking.
It told GRETA that the potential application of accelerated procedures to victims of trafficking and a screening procedure over a very truncated timeline were of concern.
It also expressed concern over the use of detention in any new system, given that detention "is completely unsuitable" for victims of trafficking.
It pointed to a lack of provision for "robust oversight" and "human rights monitoring" in the proposed domestic implementation.
IHREC also told the Council of Europe that while there had been a 30% increase in the number of people identified as trafficked in recent years (162 trafficking victims between 2022 and 2024 and 124 between 2019 and 2021), this likely reflected enhanced detection and identification efforts by authorities.
However, it said the true number of victims was likely much higher.
