A man has been arrested in Dublin in connection with a Dutch investigation into a child trafficking ring that forced Nigerian children into prostitution in Europe.
A Garda spokesman said the man, arrested in Ireland on October 10th on foot of a European arrest warrant, had already appeared before the High Court, and was due to reappear next Wednesday.
His arrest was one of at least 19 arrests made as part of an international operation involving police in six countries. Thirteen arrests were made in Dutch cities and towns while a further six people, all Nigerians, were detained in Dublin, New York, Madrid, Coventry and Antwerp. Dutch police said the traffickers used voodoo, a spiritual system common in parts of west Africa, to gain a hold over the children and bring them abroad on false passports.
Dutch authorities had been investigating the disappearance of 140 Nigerian children from asylum-seeker holding centres since January 2006. Some of the children were later found working as prostitutes in France, Italy and Spain, according to Dutch police. It is believed there is no evidence that any of the children were trafficked into Ireland.
Speaking during a Dáil debate on a draft Bill to outlaw people trafficking, Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan said he considered the trade "an abhorrent crime and a violation of fundamental human rights".
"The criminal trading of people as commodities, for whatever purpose, has no place in a modern Ireland. This form of modern-day slavery is an evil crime with no regard by the perpetrators for the human or societal consequences."
While its clandestine nature means "accurate statistics on the magnitude of the human trafficking problem are elusive", the Minister said that "there is no appreciable human trafficking problem in Ireland".
Fine Gael's spokesman on immigration and integration, Denis Naughten, said the arrest of a suspect in Dublin highlighted the plight of the 250 children who had entered the State and gone missing from their official accommodation in the past four years.
Mr Naughten said adequate support and protection must be provided for the victims of trafficking and cited a Unicef recommendation that child victims should be granted humanitarian visas. "Sadly, the Department of Justice has ignored this call and plans to deal with the issue of victims at some future date. This is just not good enough."
The US state department estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked worldwide each year.
Mr Lenihan said recent research suggested a minimum of 76 women were probably trafficked into Ireland over the past seven years. This was indicative of "a small but growing problem", he added.
Advocacy groups believe the true figure is higher. Ruhama, an organisation that works with women in prostitution, says it is aware of more than 200 victims of sex trafficking into Ireland over the past seven years. Until trafficking is made an offence, it argues, there will be no way for gardaí to gather reliable data on its prevalence.
