Europol expert on people trafficking to meet Garda

Europol's first officer on Trafficking in Human Beings is coming to Ireland tomorrow to meet the Garda and a number of NGOs to discuss the emergence of Ireland as a target state for the crime.

Steve Harvey told The Irish Times he would be meeting officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) and "Operation Quest", which targets the sex industry in Dublin. Speaking from The Hague, he said he would also meet Gerardine Rowley, information officer with Ruhama - a charity offering support to women working in prostitution - and staff at the Dublin office of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

"I will be particularly keen to meet Ruhama and the IOM. Because there is no central data collection on trafficking anywhere in Europe, it tends to be the case that it is the organisations working on the ground that have better quality data on the broader picture.

"While the police tend to have very good quality intelligence on what's happening in, for instance, Ireland, they aren't too interested in how the women were recruited, how they got here, whereas the NGOs will talk to the women about those issues and that is the kind of intelligence we need to tackle the issue on a Europe-wide basis."

Last week Ruhama and GNIB differed on both the scale and nature of trafficking to Ireland. While GNIB said there were just a handful of cases of women trafficked here for forced prostitution, adding it had three "live" investigations, Ruhama said just last year its staff had supported 32 women who had been trafficked here. Ms Rowley said this was likely to be "just the tip of the iceberg".

The GNIB also argued that most of the women trafficked here were forced to work in prostitution for men of their own nationality. Ruhama said the trafficked women they supported were used by men of all nationalities, including Irish.

Tomorrow, Mr Harvey will give a presentation to representatives from the Attorney General's office and the Chief State Solicitor's office at the Institute of European Affairs.

He said that while it was not his role to tell governments or national police forces how to tackle trafficking, he would be referring to the EU Action Plan Against Trafficking, adopted by the European Council last year.

The EU action plan calls for states to adopt a clear legal definition of trafficking and to provide services to victims of the crime.

He would not comment on the absence of legislation on trafficking in Ireland. Trafficking is not defined in Irish law and so it is not illegal to traffick women here. Legislation is expected "before the end of the year" according to the Department of Justice.