What is Human Trafficking?

Human trafficking involves the sale, trade and exploitation of human beings for profit.

It is a serious crime that exists in nearly every country in the world, including Ireland.

What does it mean?

It means that a human is being exploited by a trafficker for profit. However, for it to be human trafficking according to international law, three elements need to be present - THE ACT, THE MEANS and THE PURPOSE.

THE ACT of trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons through THE MEANS of threats, use of force, deception, coercion or abuse of power for THE PURPOSES of exploitation.

THE ACT

This is what is done to draw the person into the trafficking situation in the first place. This can be through recruitment, transportation, transferring, harbouring, or receipt of persons.

It is important that people know the ways victims are moved so that the public and services can be vigilant. and report concerns to An Garda Síochána.

Recruitment can be through job advertisements in newspapers or online, or it can be the person’s friend, an acquaintance or even a relative offering a job or making a promise to the victim. Sometimes romance and seduction is used.

THE MEANS

Simply means how it is done. How someone is trafficked and kept in a trafficking situation. This is often through threats or harm to the victim, or victims’ family, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim.

A lot of these are self-explanatory but let’s really think about what it means. Threats of harm to you or your family - victims are often told that the traffickers know where their family lives, giving personal details to confirm this, and that if they don’t comply a family member will be hurt or killed. Victims can be physically harmed – beaten, raped and abused. They can be lied to, mentally and psychologically abused.

But what about the abuse of power or vulnerability, what does this mean? We have seen victims who can’t speak the language of the country they’re trafficked to, or have little to no education, or no legal right to be in the country. Some victims have disabilities. We have heard of victims too frightened to speak out because they have been told they will be arrested and thrown in prison if they ask for help. They often have no one to turn to as they don’t speak the local language and the only information they get is from the person controlling them. It is isolating and can be very frightening.

To hear some true stories about what this has been like click here: CASE STUDIES

THE PURPOSE

This means why it is done. Why do people traffic and exploit other people?

To make money.

Through exploitation traffickers can earn huge amounts of money. It is estimated that human trafficking earns profits of roughly $150 billion per year. This money is made through the exploitation of people including sexual exploitation, forced labour, criminal activity, sham marriages, or the removal of organs.

Now the Legal Bit - Legislation

 

Human trafficking is defined in Irish legislation under Section 1 of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008:

“trafficks” means, in relation to a person (including a child)—

(a) procures, recruits, transports or harbours the person, or

  1. transfers the person to,

  2. places the person in the custody, care or charge, or under the control, of, or

  3. otherwise delivers the person to another person

(b) causes a person to enter or leave the State or to travel within the State,
(c) takes custody of a person or takes a person—

  1. into one’s care or charge, or

  2. under one’s control,

(d) provides the person with accommodation or employment

The 2008 Act has been amended in 2013 and subsequently the amendments boradened the scope of the definition of ‘exploitation’ to include criminal activities, as well as expanding the term ‘labour trafficking’ to include forced begging.

Human Trafficking vs Smuggling

The main distinction between human trafficking and people smuggling is the voluntary nature – human trafficking is a crime against the person, it is something that is forced on them, involuntary, while people who are smuggled have sought it out and have volunteered to be smuggled. It is a crime against the State.

Not all victims of trafficking are illegal in a country, many are legal, and, in fact, we see this in Ireland. During the period 2015 – 2019 Ireland detected 135 victims of trafficking from EEA countries including 3 Irish victims.  Many others coming from outside the EEA often enter the country legally also – through student, tourist, or other kinds of visas.

People smuggling always involved the migrant being facilitated entry into the State through illegal means. People smuggling also means that an international border is crossed. With human trafficking this isn’t always the case. There is no requirement for a person to have crossed a border and a person can be trafficked within their own country.

People smuggling also often sees migrants taking dangerous journeys in often degrading conditions. But the migrant has consented. The smuggling also ends once the migrant has arrived at their destination where with trafficking it doesn’t, this is where the exploitation begins or continues as the case may be.

Sometimes, however, people smuggling can turn into trafficking. There have been cases where a migrant has paid a people smuggler to help them enter a country only to find that when they arrive they then become victims of violence and exploitation.