U.S. Dep't of State, 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report: Ireland

IRELAND (Tier 2) The Government of Ireland does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore, Ireland remained on Tier 2. These efforts included investigating more trafficking crimes; convicting more traffickers, including under the anti-trafficking law; and increasing funding for victim assistance and awareness-raising activities. Law enforcement identified more trafficking victims, and the government delivered extensive anti-trafficking trainings to front-line officials.

The government adopted a new law, which introduced a statutory framework for the revised National Referral Mechanism (NRM), and passed another law that provided greater employment mobility to foreign workers, including sea fishers. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. The government has never convicted a labor trafficker under its anti-trafficking law. The government did not implement its revised NRM, resulting in continued systemic deficiencies and gaps in victim referral, assistance, and identification.

The NRM process did not allow the government to identify Irish nationals, and officials rarely identified child victims. The government’s framework for providing accommodations to trafficking victims remained inadequate. The government did not provide trafficking-specific training to judges and has never awarded restitution or compensation to any victims. PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: Implement the new NRM to allow formal victim identification and access to care without requiring victims’ cooperation or interaction with law enforcement and by entities other than the police, including civil society and other relevant frontline officials.

Using the new NRM, proactively identify and protect all victims, especially Irish citizens, victims of labor trafficking and forced criminality, and vulnerable populations like children, sea fishers, and asylum-seekers. Consistently and uniformly assign a family liaison officer to all trafficking victims cooperating with law enforcement. Vigorously investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms, and ensure labor trafficking is pursued as such rather than as labor code violations. Consistently enforce strong regulations and oversight of labor recruitment companies, including for domestic workers and au pairs, by enforcing the law prohibiting worker-paid recruitment fees and holding fraudulent labor recruiters criminally accountable.

Offer specialized trauma-informed accommodations to trafficking victims that are safe and appropriate. Continue to systematically train law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges on a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach, including use of corroborating evidence, and sensitize judges to the severity of trafficking crimes. Ensure victims are not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, especially in cannabis production facilities. Increase the availability and quality of legal assistance provided to victims during investigations and court proceedings and ensure legal assistance can be accessed at the earliest opportunity and prior to engaging with police.

Establish a national hotline to report for all forms of trafficking crimes, including labor trafficking. Increase awareness of, and trafficking victims’ access to, damages and increase efforts to systematically request restitution for all trafficking victims during criminal trials.

PROSECUTION

The government increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. The 2008 Human Trafficking Act, amended in 2013, criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties up to life imprisonment, which were sufficiently stringent and, with respect to sex trafficking, commensurate with punishments prescribed for other grave crimes, such as rape. The law broadly defined sexual exploitation to include the sexual abuse of children. The Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences) Act of 2017 criminalized the purchase of sexual services and prescribed more severe penalties for the purchase of sex from a person subjected to trafficking.

In such cases, the burden of proof shifted to the accused, who had to prove they were unaware the victim was exploited in trafficking. The Garda Síochána Human Trafficking Investigation and Coordination Unit (HTICU) was the national specialized police unit responsible for investigating human trafficking. In 2024, HTICU initiated 67 new investigations into 19 suspects – 43 for sex trafficking, 15 for labor trafficking, and nine for unspecified forms of trafficking. This was an increase compared with 53 investigations in 2023.

Thirty-one trafficking investigations initiated in previous years remained ongoing. In 2024, prosecutors initiated two labor trafficking prosecutions, the same number of prosecutions initiated in 2023. The government did not initiate any sex trafficking prosecutions for the second consecutive year. Prosecutors continued to pursue trafficking charges against 11 suspects from prosecutions initiated in previous years.

Prosecutors also charged three alleged traffickers under non-trafficking statues. In 2024, courts convicted one sex trafficker, sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment, under the anti-trafficking law; there have been no other trafficking convictions under the anti-trafficking law since the conviction of two sex traffickers in 2021. Courts also convicted four alleged traffickers for money laundering, rape, and other non-trafficking crimes, compared with two convictions in 2023. Of those convicted under non-trafficking statutes, two had yet to be sentenced, and two received significant prison sentences of more than one year’s imprisonment.

The government has never convicted a trafficker for labor trafficking under its anti-trafficking law. The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in trafficking crimes. GRETA previously expressed concern regarding the inadequate criminal justice response in Ireland, noting low conviction numbers and lenient sentences could contribute to impunity and undermine efforts to support victims to testify. In its 2022 report, GRETA urged the government to make use of special investigation techniques to gather material, documentary, financial, and digital evidence, as opposed to relying exclusively on testimony by victims or witnesses.

The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), which functioned as the national rapporteur, encouraged the government to use victim-centered and trauma-informed approaches when interacting with victims. In addition to HTICU, the government maintained the Organized Prostitution Investigation Unit (OPIU) – a specialized unit focused primarily on vulnerable populations in commercial sex, including sex trafficking victims, and its links to organized crime. The police also maintained a cyber-crime bureau trained to collect digital evidence and use web crawlers and data analytics to locate traffickers; this bureau continued to coordinate and provide assistance to investigators working on trafficking cases. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) had a specialized team responsible for deciding whether a human trafficking, migrant smuggling, or organized commercial sex case proceeded to trial but did not argue the cases in court.

Instead, the government hired private-sector barristers, often without case familiarity or training on trafficking crimes, to argue the case on behalf of the state. Experts noted this arrangement may have hindered prosecutions and urged the government to ensure barristers received specialized training and adequate time to prepare. While ODPP had no investigative authority, it could confer with police and advise on what evidence would be required to proceed with a prosecution; the government reported regular and ongoing case conferencing between the ODPP and police from the earliest operational stages. However, barristers were prohibited from meeting or building a rapport with victims ahead of trial, could not discuss evidence, and were restricted to only providing an explanation of the process during the trial.

Experts urged the government to uniformly assign a family liaison officer to every trafficking victim participating in criminal proceedings. In its 2022 report, GRETA scrutinized the low number of prosecutions and suggested this was due to the nature of the criminal justice system in Ireland and the high burden of proof required by courts – primarily the need for prosecutors to assess whether prosecution was in the public’s interest and would meet prima facie – or because labor trafficking cases may have been viewed as non-trafficking crimes with inadequate penalties. The government, in partnership with government-funded NGOs, provided extensive anti-trafficking trainings to front-line officials on various of topics, including victim identification and trauma-informed care. The government continued to provide trafficking training to all new law enforcement recruits at its police academy.

The government did not report providing trafficking-specific training to any judges. Judges often had little understanding of trafficking crimes or familiarity with the effects of trauma on trafficking victims. NGOs and GRETA recommended training for law enforcement, prosecutors, and the judiciary regarding the complexities of commercial sex and sex trafficking to ensure authorities did not inappropriately penalize victims of trafficking solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Law enforcement continued efforts to cooperate on operations with various international law enforcement organizations and conducted several bilateral and multinational investigations and joint operations, which resulted in identification of at least 336 victims and arrest of at least 65 suspects across all participating countries in 2024.

Law enforcement conducted five trafficking-focused joint operations with the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and immigration officials, but none resulted in the identification of any trafficking victims. An international organization continued to recommend increased cooperation between law enforcement in Ireland and Northern Ireland to address cross-border organized crime, including trafficking.

PROTECTION

The government increased victim protection efforts. GRETA, the national rapporteur, and civil society continued to raise concerns regarding the government’s ongoing deficiencies in proactive victim identification and provision of assistance to trafficking victims. In 2024, police formally identified 67 victims – 48 sex trafficking, 15 labor trafficking, and four unspecified forms of trafficking. This was an increase compared with 53 victims identified in 2023.

Of the 67 victims identified, all were foreign nationals; 22 were asylum-seekers; 42 were women; 15 were men; and 10 were children (eight girls and two boys). Gaps remained in victim identification; due to limitations in the current NRM, the government did not report identifying any Irish nationals, and observers reported proactive identification of children remained infrequent. NGOs initially identified and referred at least 83 potential victims to police for formal identification in 2024. The government reported referring all formally identified trafficking victims to services available through the NRM, including shelter, medical services, and legal assistance.

However, other than indicating that at least seven victims received legal assistance and 15 victims received shelter, the government did not report how many victims accessed other available services through the NRM. The government reported providing at least €2.21 million ($2.30 million) to NGOs for victim assistance, cultural mediators for victim support, legal services, training, and awareness-raising activities, an increase compared with €1.77 million ($1.84 million) in 2023. In September 2024, the government adopted the Criminal Law (Sexual Offenses and Human Trafficking) Act 2024, which introduced statutory framework for a revised NRM to identify and support trafficking victims. The government allotted a €1 million ($1.04 million) budget for NRM implementation.

The government reported the new NRM would expand preliminary victim identification beyond solely law enforcement, to include both government officials as “competent authorities” and NGOs as “trusted partners,” who had the authority to designate someone a “presumed victim of human trafficking.” This preliminary designation initiated automatic referral into the NRM to receive assistance and referral to a new operational committee, for a formal decision on victim status. The operational committee, as established in the new law, comprised representatives from the justice and labor ministries, law enforcement, migrant support services, and specialized NGO “trusted partners. While awaiting a decision from the operational committee, which could be appealed, the presumed victim could continue to receive assistance through the NRM. The government reported the new NRM would apply to all victims of trafficking, regardless of their nationality, immigration status, or pending asylum claims.

In consultation with NGO stakeholders and the national rapporteur, the government reported developing operational guidelines for the new NRM. However, while the new NRM had a statutory foundation, it was not in force, and officials had yet to begin implementation by the end of the reporting period. While awaiting implementation of the new NRM, experts continued to criticize the government’s ability to identify trafficking victims because of shortcomings in its current NRM. While NGOs reported collaborative working relationships with HTICU and OPIU, including regular referrals and case conferencing, they did not yet have a formal role in the identification of victims.

The current NRM required a formal victim statement to police to obtain a referral to access the NRM. Victims continued to express fear of law enforcement and could choose to avoid interaction and still access emergency accommodations, counseling, medical care, and legal services from government-funded NGOs, but not through the current NRM. The current NRM was also valid only for victims without legal residency in Ireland – namely foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who were not asylum-seekers, to the exclusion of Irish nationals and asylum-seekers with pending applications. The government reported using separate identification guidelines for victims seeking asylum; for trafficking victims identified during this process, officials halted the asylum process and referred victims to police for entry into the NRM.

The government reported screening unaccompanied and separated children for trafficking indicators with a child sexual exploitation identification tool, which included referral protocols. The government reported, in practice, Irish and foreign victims had equal access to all state services. GRETA and NGOs, however, asserted EEA-national victims could be excluded from accessing general social welfare, housing support payments, and other state support until they satisfied or were granted an exemption from the Habitual Residence Condition, which was difficult to obtain without the ability to prove a documented work history. Furthermore, civil society reported, unlike Irish nationals, foreign nationals did not have access to permanent residency or the right for family members to join them; there were also differences in entitlements between trafficking victims receiving services through the NRM and those who had received international protection status, including resettlement assistance.

The government maintained it assessed potential victims on a “reasonable grounds” basis to allow them access to support and services. However, NGOs, lawyers, and an academic study asserted the national police lacked consistent standards and a specific criteria for “reasonable grounds” when assessing victims; anti-trafficking efforts varied widely from urban to rural areas. A government-funded report, international organizations, and experts, including the 2022 GRETA report, raised concerns that the number of victims formally identified by police did not represent the true scale of trafficking in Ireland and left many unidentified victims to face penalization or deportation. Observers continued to express concern the government rarely identified child trafficking victims and often reclassified them as victims of “sexual exploitation” thereby excluding them from trafficking statistics and obscuring the true extent of child trafficking in Ireland.

Lack of screening among child victims of forced begging and forced criminality may have resulted in the inappropriate penalization of victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked. Experts and NGOs noted the government focused primarily on asylum-seeking children and did not adequately address trafficking involving Irish, EEA-national, or Romani children, or children recruited online. The government remained without dedicated services or accommodations for child trafficking victims, and it usually placed children in children’s residential centers, in approved foster care, or in special emergency arrangements that did not have expertise to assist child trafficking victims; social workers and one psychologist, from the anti-trafficking team at the Health Services Executive (HSE), were available to assist child victims. Unaccompanied foreign children frequently disappeared from government-run accommodations; NGOs and the media reported at least 36 children were missing from government-run facilities in 2024 and were vulnerable to trafficking.

The national rapporteur recommended the Child and Family Agency (TUSLA), which was responsible for providing services and support to child trafficking victims, amend its policies and procedures to specifically include child trafficking and provide staff trafficking-specific training. In 2024, in partnership with a government-funded NGO, the government reported working to develop specific child trafficking identification protocols, informed by the new NRM, and training TUSLA staff. The government did not formally identify sea fishers as trafficking victims for second consecutive year, compared with two victims in 2022. Despite the government formally identifying 33 sea fisher victims since the establishment of the Atypical Working Scheme (AWS) in 2016 and police finding sufficient evidence of trafficking to refer at least nine cases to the ODPP, there have been no prosecutions of trafficking in the fishing sector.

Officials from the Department of Justice (DOJ) continued to deny the existence of trafficking within the industry. Civil society attributed the lack of identified trafficking victims in the fishing sector to the termination of AWS and the de-coupling of work permits from individual employers to eliminate the use of permits to control the labor of sea fishers. In 2024, the government finalized its new permit framework for non-EEA sea fishers: sector-wide General Employment Permits. These permits allowed for greater mobility between employers in the same occupation classification and decreased vulnerability to trafficking.

Experts continued to urge the government to increase transparency on vessel and ownership information and proactively screen for trafficking victims among sea fishers. The current NRM, which was administered at government-run assistance centers (“direct provision centers”), could provide victims with access to legal aid, direct provision of accommodations, welfare and rent allowance, police assistance, repatriation, translation and interpretation assistance, education for dependent children, a recovery and reflection period, work permits, temporary residence permits, and medical care, including individual care plans by HSE’s Anti-Human Trafficking Team, within three days of referral. However, NGOs reported delays in accessing many of the services available via the NRM. There was no legally mandated psychological assistance for victims, and NGOs continued to report a lack of specialized services to address the physical and mental health needs of victims.

GRETA previously urged the government to address the shortage of psychological support services and ensure trafficking victims were provided with long-term psychological assistance. Experts continued to urge the government to consistently and uniformly assign a family liaison officer and psychologist to all victims, including labor trafficking victims, cooperating with law enforcement to ensure victim protection and increase the likelihood of successful prosecutions. Experts also urged the government to allow intermediaries or support persons to accompany not only children but all trafficking victims to interviews with law enforcement. In its 2022 report, GRETA urged the increased and uniform use of professional interpreters, with human trafficking training, at all stages of victim identification and criminal proceedings.

According to experts, the lack of clear rights and legal protections for victims often required NGOs to use the legal system to ensure victims’ rights were protected, which only benefited a limited number of victims. NGOs reported services available from the government’s Legal Aid Board were inadequate for victims’ needs, as the board only provided information to victims formally referred by police but did not provide legal assistance or support to victims during investigations or trials. However, two government-funded NGOs continued to provide legal representation to at least seven trafficking victims in 2024. Experts continued to urge the government to ensure trafficking victims had systematic early access to legal practitioners with specialized knowledge of trafficking who could represent them.

The government continued to fund a trafficking-specific, NGO-operated, shelter that could accommodate up to eight adult women sex trafficking victims seeking asylum; 15 victims received accommodations in 2024. The government reported psycho-social care and case managers were available to victims at the shelter. Civil society expressed concern with the shelter’s limited capacity, which left most trafficking victims with no alternative to the government-funded direct provision system, which housed asylum-seekers and refugees, as well as trafficking victims, in centers and temporary accommodation facilities across the country. NGOs further reported a shortage of accommodation in direct provision.

UN experts, GRETA, and NGOs stated the direct provision system often placed male and female victims in the same living space, which resulted in inadequate privacy, was unsuitable and potentially unsafe for traumatized victims, could expose them to greater exploitation, and undermined victim recovery. Experts also noted a lack of specialized services in the centers for all victims, but especially for women sex trafficking victims, and that shelter in direct provision centers was inadequate for emergency or long-term stays. The government previously published plans to overhaul and phase out the direct provision system by 2024 and replace it with a victim-centered accommodation and social support system called the International Protection System; however, at the end of the reporting period, the system remained in place. Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Act 2024 prohibited the deportation of trafficking victims, including potential victims, during the application process for official victim status.

The government could also issue potential foreign trafficking victims temporary residence permits, contingent upon cooperation with an ongoing investigation; permits could be extended by police request to the DOJ. The government provided legal alternatives to removal to countries in which victims would face retribution or hardship. The government granted immigration permissions through a 60-day recovery and reflection period and a renewable six-month temporary residence permission that allowed the holder to engage in legal employment; however, the government did not report how many permits it issued to trafficking victims, and NGOs reported the government did not uniformly provide these protections. Trafficking victims could not work for the first 60 days during their recovery and reflection period.

Temporary residence permission could evolve into permanent residency, and residence benefits were not linked to the outcome of the victim’s court case. Courts did not award restitution or compensation to victims for the crime of human trafficking – only for lost wages. Although courts could award restitution during criminal proceedings, courts did not allow prosecutors to request restitution on behalf of victims; courts have never awarded restitution to a trafficking victim, and no victims were awarded compensation from the state in 2024. Victims could obtain compensation for lost wages through a criminal trial, a civil suit, state bodies dealing specifically with work-related rights, and the criminal injuries compensation tribunal.

To date, courts have never awarded trafficking victims compensation via a civil suit and have only awarded assets seized from traffickers to the government, rather than to victims. In its 2022 report, GRETA noted courts often treated victims as witnesses in criminal proceedings, as opposed to parties entitled to compensation. GRETA and the national rapporteur urged the government to establish a special compensation fund for trafficking victims funded by the assets confiscated from perpetrators. The Minister of Justice could decide to order restitution for unpaid labor of foreign trafficking victims, but the Minister never utilized this authority.

NGOs criticized the lack of viable avenues for victim restitution, particularly of cases that involved sex trafficking or undocumented workers, which may have increased vulnerability to trafficking; sex trafficking victims had no verifiable expenses or employment losses. The national rapporteur, GRETA, and civil society expressed concern regarding the inaccessibility of compensation for victims; the national rapporteur recommended the urgent reform of legal aid to include advice on compensation. Under Section 59 of the new Employment Permits Act of 2024, foreign nationals who worked without an employment permit could seek compensation for wages through civil proceedings. While the Act did not explicitly address the legal residency status of these individuals, foreign nationals were entitled to such remedies only if they could prove they had taken all reasonable steps to rectify their irregular working status.

WRC reported processing three civil claims under the amended law in 2024. The law entitled trafficking victims to various protections, including privacy and anonymity in court proceedings; assignment of a family liaison officer; exclusion of the public from the trial; pre-trial consultations with ODPP to discuss trial process and procedure; use of an interpreter; and option to testify via video link, at the discretion of the judge. However, the government did not uniformly implement these protections, and NGOs expressed doubt officials properly informed victims of available protections. In 2024, relevant officials did not request special protections for any trafficking victims to testify via video link.

The law provided child-sensitive protocols, including the use of video recording for testimony; the assignment of a specially trained social worker, if needed; and child-sensitive training for officials interacting with child victims. While the government remained without a specific legal provision to ensure victims were not inappropriately penalized solely for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked, the Criminal Act of 2024 adopted a new provision that prohibited victims of trafficking from being prosecuted for sex trafficking, but it was not yet in force. Prosecutors reported, in practice, seeking to avoid the prosecution of trafficking victims and utilized internal guidelines that instructed them to consider the public interest and mitigating factors, such as coercion, when deciding whether to charge an individual with a crime. The decision to prosecute a trafficking victim rested entirely with the ODPP and was not subject to scrutiny.

NGOs noted the process for victims to seek immunity from punishment for criminal activity as a result of trafficking was complex and required early legal representation. If authorities prosecuted an individual before they were formally identified as a trafficking victim, their criminal record could not be expunged. In 2024, NGOs continued to report officials arrested and charged potential victims found in cannabis production facilities. NGOs urged the government to complete the identification process for victims in cannabis production facilities prior to arresting and processing these individuals.

The national rapporteur expressed concern officials imprisoned and charged victims for criminal offenses associated with trafficking.

PREVENTION

The government maintained prevention efforts. The DOJ’s criminal justice policy unit functioned as the national coordinating body and was responsible for coordinating interagency efforts, raising awareness, providing funding to anti-trafficking civil society organizations, collecting data, and publishing an annual trafficking report. The criminal justice policy unit met with other agencies and working groups seven times in 2024. The DOJ’s national anti-trafficking stakeholders forum comprised interagency and civil society stakeholders and met four times in 2024.

The national rapporteur, IHREC, was responsible for monitoring human trafficking policy and publishing reports. The government continued to implement its 2023-2027 NAP for sex and labor trafficking, with specific measures for children, which included a defined implementation timeframe, a €700,000 ($728,400) dedicated budget, and plans for a monitoring committee and outside evaluation. The government conducted awareness raising campaigns targeting various front-line officials and migrant communities vulnerable to trafficking and published most awareness-raising material online for public access. The government did not operate a dedicated hotline assisting all trafficking victims; it maintained a hotline for sex trafficking victims and individuals in commercial sex.

The government also promoted a general crime hotline to report trafficking crimes. A government-funded NGO also operated a toll-free hotline, in six languages, for victims of sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking. The government did not report the number of trafficking-related calls hotlines received. The government also maintained a website with information on human trafficking and how to report potential trafficking crimes; 15 percent of the reports from the website were related to human trafficking, but none resulted in victim identification.

Additionally, WRC maintained a website with information on trafficking and resources for foreign workers especially vulnerable to trafficking, such as sea fishers and domestic workers. The government did not report comprehensive efforts to prevent or deter fraudulent recruitment or to effectively enforce labor regulations to prevent recruitment fees charged to workers, which increased workers’ vulnerability to trafficking. Recruitment and permit fees charged to migrant workers and fraudulent recruitment by labor recruitment and employment agencies remained concerns. The law required employment agencies to have a license, be vetted by law enforcement, and provide written contracts to workers; passport withholding and charging recruitment or permit fees were illegal.

Nonetheless, recruitment companies and employment agencies often charged large sums of money for work permits and used debt bondage to control victims; civil society previously reported 75 percent of victims referred to the NRM were charged high permit fees. The government prohibited foreign workers from changing employers for the first nine months of employment. While foreign workers, including seasonal workers, no longer needed a new permit, they could not change employers without prior government permission, which may have increased their vulnerability to trafficking. The WRC did not have the authority to regulate agencies that recruited au pairs, who were allowed to work up to 20 hours per week without the need for a work permit.

NGOs reported employers regularly paid au pairs less than minimum wage and forced them to work more than the maximum of 20 hours per week, creating vulnerability to labor trafficking; however, the government did not report any steps taken to address this concern. Labor inspectors conducted routine inspections of worksites, and the government trained labor inspectors on identifying trafficking crimes; however, WRC inspectors continued to lack authority to identify trafficking victims and had to refer cases to the police. In 2024, WRC labor inspectors referred five potential labor exploitation cases to the police and participated in several large-scale joint action day inspections targeting various forms of human trafficking. Despite these efforts, WRC inspectors lacked jurisdiction to address violations regarding the number of hours worked on fishing vessels, where sea fishers faced trafficking vulnerabilities.

Some experts and GRETA raised concerns inspectors viewed possible cases of labor trafficking as administrative employment law violations and did not pursue them as trafficking crimes. The government prohibited convicted traffickers from being selected for public contracts. The government made efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex by arresting and prosecuting at least nine alleged purchasers of commercial sex in 2024. TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Trafficking affects all communities.

This section summarizes government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking over the past five years. Traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ireland, and to a lesser extent, traffickers exploit victims from Ireland abroad. Technology-facilitated sex trafficking, including for recruitment, movement, control, advertising, and exploitation of victims, extends beyond the typical online advertisements and is pervasive; live streaming of sex trafficking continues to increase. Young male traffickers use romance scams to coerce girls and women into sex trafficking, often using a faux romantic relationship as a means of manipulation or control.

Traffickers fraudulently recruit Brazilian women for work in Ireland by using promises of employment in cafes and massage parlors or as au pairs and subsequently exploit them in commercial sex upon arrival in Ireland. Sex traffickers increasingly use drug addiction as a form of coercion. Traffickers exploit victims of forced labor in domestic work, restaurants, cannabis cultivation, nail salons, food processing, waste management, fishing, seasonal agriculture, hospitality, and car washing services. Undocumented workers in the fishing industry and domestic workers, particularly au pairs, are vulnerable to trafficking.

Migrant workers from Egypt, Ghana, and the Philippines are vulnerable to forced labor on fishing vessels. Media previously reported instances of sea fishers paying significant fees to recruitment companies in the Philippines prior to arrival in Ireland, increasing their vulnerability to debt bondage and trafficking. A 2023 report indicated Irish-flagged fishing vessels were in the top five of fishing vessels accused of forced labor, representing 5 percent of all vessels. Women from Eastern Europe forced into marriages in Ireland may be subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor.

Refugees from Ukraine, predominantly women and children fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war, are vulnerable to trafficking. On This Page search > < IRELAND (Tier 2) PRIORITIZED RECOMMENDATIONS: PROSECUTION PROTECTION PREVENTION TRAFFICKING PROFILE: Tags Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Human Trafficking Ireland Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Reports