During the last decade there has been increased awareness of trafficking as a live issue locally. New identification and support services were established and an increased number of victims have been rescued.
Background
Our land border with another European state puts us in a unique position in the UK. Cheap direct flights mean that we can be seen as a gateway to both the GB and the Irish Republic. As long ago as 2002 the BBC exposed the fact that hundreds of workers had paid money in order to be smuggled into Ireland, to work on farms here on the promise of high wages. In reality they were passed on to be exploited by farmers who just wanted cheap labour.
(BBC news report news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/northern_ireland/2407629.stm)
In 2004 a Chinese woman, Qu Mei Na, was murdered in Belfast. Speaking in February 2008, following the sentencing of one of the men convicted of the murder Alliance politician Anna Lo said that ‘it was widely believed in the Chinese community that the woman had been trafficked and that she had been trying to get out of prostitution.’ She also quoted police sources as saying that there were up to 70 brothels in N. Ireland, run by foreign gangs and paramilitaries, and that, as well as women, children as young as 11 were being smuggled into the country.
www.newsletter.co.uk/news/MLA-and-Womens-Aid-voice.3751911.jp
Rev. Becky Dudley’s research was published in 2005 by Women’s Aid. She said ‘Hard data is difficult to find, but professionals and community workers have encountered a cause for concern about trafficking in four areas: exploited labour; women and girls who are exploited, including in the sex industry; unaccompanied minors arriving in Northern Ireland; and young people (born in Northern Ireland) who are being systematically sexually exploited.’
www.embraceni.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/WomensAid%20B%20Dudley%20research.pdf
The situation today
In The Nature and Extent of Human Trafficking in Northern Ireland, by Agnieszka Martynowicz, Sarah Toucas and Anne Caughey of the Institute for Conflict Research, published in 2010, the authors confirm that the problem is still difficult to quantify, with victims reluctant to admit the nature of their situation. They quoted a law enforcement officer who quantified three types of trafficking ‘I certainly think, if we were to put it in [some] order, I’d say at the moment in Northern Ireland forced labour is the biggest problem with trafficking, followed very closely by sexual exploitation, and third would be domestic servitude.’ The Nature and Extent of Human Trafficking in Northern Ireland, p. 38
Evidence suggests that women trafficked for prostitution come from a large number of countries with a predominance of people from China and other parts of Asia, although there seem to be more women from central and eastern Europe in the North West. Women are moved about to exert greater control over their lives.
A scoping study by John Bell of the Institute of Conflict Research into the extent of forced labour here also found cause for concern and that research is ongoing. His ‘A Modern Form of Slavery? A Literature Review of Forced Labour’ included published work which indicated that the tightening of immigration regulations increases the likelihood of people having to rely on smugglers and people traffickers.
Law enforcement and political interest
Until quite recently there was a tendency for the police to deny the existence of a widespread problem but there is acknowledgement now of trafficking as a serious challenge. The Organised Crime Task Force encourages cooperation between the different authorities concerned in both GB and NI. In 2009 a PSNI trafficking unit was established and organisations nominated to assist in the care of victims. There have been police raids and some people rescued during the past decades but few prosecutions. The NI Assembly passed a resolution showing their strength of feeling about trafficking on21 September 2010. See www.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2010/100921.pdf pp 183–92 and pp206–212. See also www.u.tv/News/Assembly-debate-NI-human-trafficking/98d324c1-288a-4d0d-9111-e711c564152e and questions to Justice Minister David Ford on 28 June 2010.www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?id=2010-06-28.11.57
On 2 March 2011 David Simpson MP for Upper Bann initiated a debate on child slavery at Westminster. www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/child-slavery-in-the-uk-and-abroad/
Research Reports
Agnieszka Martynowicz, Sarah Toucas and Anne Caughey The Nature and Extent of Human Trafficking in Northern Ireland, Institute for 2010. www.nihrc.org/dms/data/NIHRC/attachments/dd/files/71/The_Nature_and_Extent_of_Human_Trafficking_in_Northern_Ireland_(January_2010)_ECNI_NIHRC.pdf
John Bell, ‘A Modern Form of Slavery? A Literature Review of Forced Labour’, Institute of Conflict Research, 2009.
