On 13 September 2023, IHREC held the launch of their second annual report on trafficking in human beings in Ireland in Dublin, Ireland. The conference, attended by RENATE members and fellow colleagues in the fight against Human Trafficking hosted a number of panellists and discussions on the findings, recommendations and future plans for the continued fight against human trafficking in Ireland.
Read full report
“Crises shift trafficking patterns and hinder victim identification”
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2022 report reviews patterns in the data about trafficking in persons, gathered between 2017 and 2021, from 141 countries.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human trafficking is under scrutiny in the report, which notes a fall in the number of detected victims for the first time in 20 years. However, it warns that these figures are likely to represent a decline in the ability of authorities to detect victims during the crisis, rather than a fall in the actual number of victims, although certain trafficking operations may have been disrupted.
The majority of identified victims were ‘self-rescued’; they escaped and sought help from authorities of their own volition. Law enforcement-initiated cases and rescues on the other hand are rarer. This finding is cause for alarm, since it has long been documented that many trafficking victims do not identify themselves as such, due to the psychological impact of their circumstances. If law enforcement are rescuing victims in smaller numbers than those who manage to independently reach safety, many more are likely going unidentified and their abuse is ongoing.
It was found that climate change and conflict are both factors increasing the risks to those vulnerable to traffickers.
A higher proportion of detected victims were male, attributable to growth in new forms of exploitation, however women and children suffered greater amounts of violence from their exploiters.
More insight and detailed breakdowns and visualisations of the data can be found in the global report, which can be accessed here in the RENATE website library, in addition to the UNODC website.
Read UN Office on Drugs and Crime Press Release
A much-awaited report by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), published in July 2022, examines the progress in the fight against human trafficking made by the 57 signatory states of the OSCE since its previous survery conducted in 2015.
Valiant Richey, OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, speaking at the launch event, celebrated that thanks to the coverage of the report, the OSCE now had significant ‘longitudinal data’ to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of its recommendations over a seven year period.
The overarching finding was happily that progress has indeed been made in the fight against human trafficking by the OSCE states, with notable improvements to anti-trafficking legal measures targeting procurement and supply chains.
The general observation gleaned from the collective data was that most countries were taking the right kind of action recommended by the OSCE to varying degrees.
Meanwhile, the most widespread drawback was seen to be in resource constraints on the anti-trafficking measures, limiting their effectiveness.
Other causes for concern were voiced, such as the gross increase in reported cases of trafficking for forced criminality and forced begging. Another glaring problem was highlighted that only 34 of the 57 signatories criminalise the use of victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation.
The findings have not left the OSCE confounded on the next steps to take, far from it. Many incisive recommendations are tabled in the report, to implore legislators and other acting organisations to further increase their effectiveness in combatting human trafficking in the coming years.
Watch the launch event
OSCE 2021 full report
RENATE members at APT Ireland (Act to Prevent Trafficking) share a link to a UK organisation called Victim Focus, which produces resources for professionals working in the areas of human trafficking, exploitation, specifically with regard to women and girls.
https://www.victimfocus.org.uk/resources-for-professionals
Prepared by Anne Kelleher, RENATE Communications.
EU Report Anti-Trafficking at a Glance 2012- 2016
ACRATH education resource for teachers This educational resource has been prepared for secondary school teachers to assist you in educating and raising consciousness about the issue of human trafficking.
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