Trafficking

Wide-ranging legislation on sexual offences and human trafficking has been approved by the Oireachtas. The Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 includes measures on sexual offence trials providing for victim and suspect anonymity, a right to legal representation where victi

Legislation to enable more victims of human trafficking to come forward will be enacted in the coming days, justice minister Helen McEntee has said. Ms McEntee was speaking in Cork at a conference on tackling human trafficking yesterday.

The government's third national action plan to combat human trafficking has been launched by justice minister Helen McEntee. The 40-page plan sets out a number of actions across government departments to work towards ending human trafficking in the State, including the establishment of a new nationa

Mandatory human trafficking awareness training for those working in the security industry has been launched by the Private Security Authority (PSA). The training, which has been developed for the PSA by Mecpaths, will become mandatory for all those seeking a PSA licence to work in the door superviso

UN experts have called on the Irish government to take urgent steps to ensure access to housing and assistance for victims of trafficking, recognising the trauma endured by victims and ongoing needs for protection. Siobhán Mullally, the special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially

A wide-ranging bill strengthening the law around sexual offences and improves protections for victims of sexual offences and of human trafficking has been published. Among the main provisions of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023 are changes to the law on consent, rem

A failure to identify any child victims of trafficking in the past two years shows "significant gaps" in Ireland's current identification processes, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has said. The rights watchdog today gave evidence to the Oireachtas joint committee on justice, which is

Northern Ireland's new three-year modern slavery and human trafficking strategy has gone out to consultation. The 12-week public consultation seeks views and comments from individuals and organisations across all sectors to ensure that the resulting strategy is as informed, comprehensive and effecti

Ireland is sliding backwards on tackling human trafficking, with the number of investigations decreasing and the number of prosecutions and convictions at a very low level, an expert group has warned. The Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) urge

New reforms to the law on consent, knowledge and belief in rape trials will require that an accused's defence that he believed the complainant was consenting has to be objectively reasonable. The Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2022 will amend the fault or mental elemen

State agencies and NGOs will be given a role in identifying victims of human trafficking following concerns that victims are slipping through the cracks. Ministers yesterday approved plans for a revised national referral mechanism (NRM), which will also be put on a statutory footing through primary

A government bill on human trafficking needs to be toughened to be brought in line with EU and UN standards, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has said. The rights watchdog, designated under EU law as Ireland's independent national rapporteur on the trafficking of human beings, has publ

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has been designated as Ireland’s independent national rapporteur on human trafficking, for the purposes of EU anti-human trafficking legislation. The role will include carrying out of assessments of trends in trafficking in human beings, t