Trafficking
Reports
Global & European Reports and Publications
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
The 2024 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking in Persons is the eighth of its kind mandated by the General Assembly through the 2010 United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons. This edition of the Global Report provides a snapshot of the trafficking patterns and flows at global, regional and national levels. It covers 156 countries and provides an overview of the response to the trafficking in persons by analysing trafficking cases detected between 2019 and 2023. A major focus of this edition of the Report is on trends of detections and convictions that show the changes compared to historical trends since UNODC started to collect data in 2003, and following the Covid-19 Pandemic.
On 14 July, the revised EU Anti-Trafficking Directive enters into force with stronger rules to fight trafficking in human beings. The revised Directive introduces stricter criminalisation and provides stronger tools for public authorities to investigate and prosecute new forms of exploitation, including those that take place online, and ensure better assistance and support to victims.
For instance, national law will have to qualify the exploitation of surrogacy, of forced marriage and of illegal adoption as trafficking. Those who knowingly use services provided by victims of trafficking will commit criminal offence. The use of the internet, smartphones and computers will be considered as an aggravating circumstance when it is used for sexual exploitation and could lead to higher penalties.
The revised Directive will ensure that all EU countries will join forces and address the emerging issues in a harmonised way. They will nominate National anti-trafficking coordinators and will have to adopt and regularly update National action plans. EU Member States have two years (until 15 July 2026) to transpose these new rules into their national law.
Read Revised Text here
Original EU Directive Text here
This second edition of the National Referral Mechanisms Handbook. Fifteen years after the first edition, trafficking in human beings has only proliferated further, as criminals have adopted ever more sophisticated techniques for exploiting their fellow human beings. New technologies such as the Internet and social media have been deployed to groom, recruit and traffic vulnerable people in a multi-billion dollar global criminal industry.
The size of this multi-part handbook recognizes not only the new challenges we face in combating human trafficking, but also new developments in our approaches and understanding of how best to identify, protect and support victims, as well as on how to prevent them being trafficked in the first place. Most notably, we now recognize that survivors’ and victims’ needs and views need to be at the forefront of the
development of policy responses, and indeed this handbook has been created with indepth consultations with survivors themselves.
Protecting society from organised crime, and in particular tackling trafficking in human beings, is a priority under the new EU security union strategy1. Article 20 of Directive 2011/36/EU2 (‘Anti-trafficking Directive’) foresees a two-yearly report on the progress made in the fight against trafficking in human beings.
Child trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes and a crime against human rights as criminals profit from the abuse of the weakest social category of all – vulnerable children. Globally, approximately 28% of identified victims of trafficking are children3 . In the EU, the trafficking and exploitation of underage victims occurs both at national level and across multiple Member States.
Landmark Forced Labour Protocol enters into force:
“Ratifying countries are now obliged to implement the treaty and report on measures taken.” Committee on Forced Labour, ILC 2014.
The 2018 Global Slavery Index provides a country by country ranking of the number of people in modern slavery, as well as an analysis of the actions governments are taking to respond, and the factors that make people vulnerable.
This year, so that we might better understand the problem, we have also included an analysis of trade flows and data on state imposed forced labour in North Korea, risk factors in the fishing industry, and the prevalence of forced labour in the cocoa sector.
Child and forced marriage (CFM) is a human rights violation and a harmful practice that disproportionately affects women and girls globally, preventing them from living their lives free from all forms of violence.
CFM threatens the lives and futures of girls and women around the world, robbing them of their agency to make decisions about their lives, disrupting their education, making them more vulnerable to violence, discrimination and abuse, and preventing their full participation in economic, political and social spheres.
Child marriage is also often accompanied by early and frequent pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in higher than average maternal morbidity and mortality rates.
CFM may lead to women and girls attempting to flee their communities or commit suicide to avoid or escape the marriage.
The current report, the fifth edition of the
ILO’s quadrennial report series on global estimates of child labour, charts how
far we have come and how far we still
have to go to honour this commitment
to ending child labour. The report describes the scale and key characteristics
of child labour in the world today, as well
as changes in the global child labour situation over time. It also discusses key policy priorities in the campaign to reach the
2025 target. The report, and the global
estimation exercise that underpins it,
form part of a broader inter-agency effort under Alliance 8.7 to measure and
monitor progress towards target 8.7 of
the Sustainable Development Goals.
Our campaign has evolved into the world’s largest influencing network solely focused on ending the sexual exploitation of children, with a membership of 122 civil society organisations in 104 countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected countries and people globally; it has also exacerbated existing
disadvantages, poverty and vulnerabilities. The initial measures to contain the health crisis have not always considered those most vulnerable and affected by violence and exploitation. This report seeks to bring to the forefront the challenges for anti-trafficking during the pandemic and share promising practices and lessons learned in order to prepare for a more inclusive crisis-response in the future, leaving no one behind.
Ireland Reports and Publications
The Department of Justice is responsible for the policy and administration of Government Anti-Human Trafficking objectives. We have primary responsibility for:
- the coordination and development of the Government’s response to the problem of human trafficking.
- developing and maintaining structures and policies to ensure that the Irish Government complies with the international obligations in relation to human trafficking to which we are party and are the subject of international evaluation. Such obligations exist with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Office of the EU Anti-Trafficking Coordinator, the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts against Trafficking in Human Beings and the International Labour Organisation. We are also evaluated on an annual basis by the US Government’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
- collecting standardized, non-personalised, information in relation to suspected and potential victims of human trafficking from governmental and non-governmental stakeholders for use as an evidence base for policy development.
Human trafficking is a crime and a serious human rights violation. It occurs all over the world, including in Ireland. It takes many different forms and may be present in any community, nationwide.
Ireland is taking significant steps to combat human trafficking and respond to the needs of victims, at home and with our partners abroad. The National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Human Trafficking takes a victim-centred and human rights based approach and An Garda Síochána has a specialist unit dedicated to anti-human trafficking.
It is also important that members of the public know the signs of trafficking and how to report any concerns. This website provides information on human trafficking as well as how to seek help.
Read Report Here
The Government of Ireland does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.
Read Report Here
Report concerning the implementation
of the Council of Europe Convention
on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings
by Ireland
Read full report here
The Human Trafficking & Exploitation Project on the Island of Ireland (HTEPII) is the culmination of a
cooperative project involving several collaborators. This unique mixed-methods research project brings
together senior academics at Mary Immaculate College with senior personnel from An Garda Sióchána,
the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Irish Department of Justice & Equality, and the Department
of Justice Northern Ireland to review and re-assess the scale and scope of human trafficking in Ireland.
In 2017, over 650,000 people lodged an application for international protection in the EU, 31,395 of whom were unaccompanied minors, constituting more than a 30 per cent increase since 2014. The number of unaccompanied minors recorded in Ireland is low compared to other EU Member States. However, consistent with EU and international trends, this number has increased since 2014. In 2017, 175 unaccompanied minors were referred to the Child and Family Agency, Tusla, Social Work Team for Separated Children Seeking Asylum in Dublin, up from 97 in 2014.
This study examines the policies and practices on unaccompanied minors following an international protection or immigration status decision in Ireland. Principally, it considers two potential outcomes for unaccompanied minors in Ireland: a positive decision for immigration permission or international protection and subsequent integration in-country, and forced or voluntary return. The situation of unaccompanied minors turning 18 is highlighted in particular throughout the report, which also presents information on implications arising from a lack of status.
Recent years have seen unprecedented progress
towards embedding the child’s right to protection
from sexual exploitation more deeply into the
global agenda, no more so than the global
mandate to eliminate the sexual exploitation
of children (SEC) enshrined in the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world
leaders in 2015. ECPAT Country Overviews on SEC
provide an effective tool for advocacy at all levels
as well as for monitoring, including on government
commitments made in the SDGs to end violence
against children in all its different forms by 2030
This report (State of the Cyber Security Sector in Ireland 2022) has been independently commissioned on behalf of Cyber Ireland and Cyber Skills, led by Perspective Economics. It outlines the size and make-up of Ireland’s cyber security sector, assessing its economic contribution to Ireland’s economy, in addition to benchmarking and exploring potential sectoral opportunities.
Visit to Ireland : report of the Special Rapporteur on the Sale and Sexual Exploitation of Children, including Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Other Child Sexual Abuse Material
A large body of research exists in relation to youth crime. However, comparatively little is known in relation to the contexts of children who engage in serious offending behaviour and participate in criminal networks. Using a case study design, this study first identified and then examined the behaviour of a criminal network operating in a Garda Sub-District in Ireland in 2010–2011.
A large body of research exists in relation to youth crime. However, comparatively little is known in relation to the contexts of children who engage in serious offending behaviour and participate in criminal networks. Using a case study design, this study first identified and then examined the behaviour of a criminal network operating in a Garda Sub-District in Ireland in 2010–2011.
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