Ireland "making significant efforts" to comply with human trafficking protections

Ireland has again been grouped in Tier 2 of the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, published by the US State Department on Monday, June 25.

As part of Tier 2, Ireland is among “countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s [Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000] minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

Each country in the report is grouped into one of four categories - Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watchlist, and Tier 3. The placement in each tier "is based not on the size of a country’s problem but on the extent of government efforts to meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, which are generally consistent with the Palermo Protocol."

Ireland was previously included in Tier 1 of the annual report, but was downgraded to Tier 2 in 2018.

In 2020, Ireland was further downgraded to the Tier 2 Watchlist, which it rebounded from back to Tier 2 in 2022 and 2023.

In this year's report, nearly 100 countries make up Tier 2, including other European nations Albania, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the US, UK, Canada, and Australia made Tier 1 which features "Countries whose governments fully meet the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking."

In further detail, here's what this year's report said about Ireland: "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 adopting a NAP to guide national-level trafficking coordination, opening its first specialized trafficking shelter for women, and increasing funding for victim assistance and awareness-raising activities.

"Law enforcement initiated more investigations, prosecutors initiated the country’s first prosecutions for labor trafficking, and courts convicted more traffickers under non-trafficking statutes.

"Law enforcement identified more trafficking victims, and the government reported delivering comprehensive training to a variety of officials and NGOs.

"Government officials participated in extensive international investigations and partnerships, which resulted in identifying victims and arresting suspected traffickers.

"However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas.

"The government did not convict any traffickers for trafficking and instead relied on non-trafficking statutes that may have, at times, resulted in inadequate penalties and has never convicted a trafficker for labor trafficking under its anti-trafficking law.

"Systemic deficiencies in victim identification, referral, and assistance persisted; the government did not amend its NRM and, consequently, did not identify any Irish nationals as victims.

"The government did not overhaul its framework for providing accommodations to trafficking victims, which continues to leave victims with inadequate and unsuitable accommodations.

"The government did not report providing trafficking-specific training to any judges and has never awarded restitution or compensation to any victims."