I see that Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan has warned that human trafficking could become a major problem in Ireland ‘if the issue is not addressed’. He was speaking in support of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Bill 2007 which would make it an offence to recruit, transport, transfer or harbour a person for the purpose of sexual or labour exploitation, or the removal of their organs.

Even as he spoke, the Gardaí announced the arrest of a man in Dublin in an international operation involving the police in the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Britain and the United States. It is suggested that as many as 130 Nigerian children, mostly girls, have been trafficked into the Netherlands by a criminal ring who controlled them with the threat of voodoo.
The children were sent off with false passports and told to apply for asylum. They were subsequently taken by the traffickers from the facilities in which the Dutch authorities had put them and set to work as prostitutes in several European countries, including France, Italy and Spain.
Needless to say, there’s been a chorus of alarm. The very notion that young people would be trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation is shocking and appalling.
Predictably, Barnardos led the way. Speaking on RTÉ a spokesperson expressed concern about the situation of ‘unaccompanied minors’ who disappear while in the care of the HSE. Others followed suit.
The prospect of young people just disappearing like, say, Maddie McCann, is shocking. Even more is that, unlike the tragic McCann child, nobody would notice.
But is all as it seems?
I don’t know. Frankly, it’s hard to believe that traumatised children have the wherewithal to make their way to Ireland of all places, on their own, from Darfur, Rwanda, the Congo or wherever.
Some form of trafficking must be involved. Some parents appear willing to dispatch their children to far distant countries to take their chances and are willing to pay good money to have them taken there. This bespeaks one of three things, all at a level beyond words: desperation, callousness or gullibility.
But the Gardaí believe that few of these are connected with sexual exploitation. So, there’s other traffickers in the field and their motives, one concludes, are various.
There must be people here who are receivers just as there are people there who are senders. This is sometimes characterised as trafficking ‘for humanitarian purposes’. But is this a good thing? Might it be confused with ‘labour exploitation? And when the children are here, what then?
In this State anyone under 18 is a child. As such s/he has many entitlements, for example to education and various services. S/he is placed in the care of the HSE. A social worker is allocated to him/her.
An unaccompanied minor is safer from expulsion than a child in an asylum-seeking family. Generally they are left alone, sometimes for many years, save for the attentions of social workers and the support of non-Governmental organisations. And, unless they get into bother, such attentions are not intense.
Concerns about these children are frequently expressed. They live in hostels. There are few adult role models. In general, they are left to their own devices. Some are fantastically resilient. Most, while bored and restless, make the best of it. But some don’t, growing to adulthood with no sense of social or behavioural norms. They’re teenagers, for chrissake!
On reaching 18 an asylum seeker loses most entitlements and could be expelled. Furthermore, asylum seekers are not entitled to work and are therefore not entitled to social welfare. But, weaknesses exist in every system. For example, as far as one can discern from the official documentation and websites, anyone who is unmarried and the parent of a child is entitled to a Single Parent Family Payment, whether or not they are entitled to social welfare…
If this is the case, and it very much seems to be, then there is a strong incentive for a young female asylum seeker to have a child on her own. And a father can apply to stay as the parent of an Irish-born child.
Should such become established as a norm, the long-term social consequences would be appalling. Shouldn’t we be taking greater interest in their well being? Wouldn’t it be better to find a way of allowing them work?
(Of course, it’s also possible that a clampdown on trafficking for sexual exploitation might also reduce trafficking for ‘humanitarian’ purposes.)
We’re just getting the hang of this new thing where people come here for reasons other than tourism or ancestral loyalties. And the idea that people might, as it were, come to pick your pocket, just as your great great grandfather’s cousins went off to pick pockets in Amerikay and England, takes some getting used to.
But we’d better get smart, and quickly. Problems that seem small and inconsequential have a habit of getting out of hand overnight. Time isn’t on our side on this one.