Crowe takes part in British-Irish meeting on human trafficking

Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe was one of a number of Irish TDs who attended a meeting of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in Scotland which is investigating measures that should be taken by parliaments in Dublin, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London to co-ordinate measures to deal with the growing problem of people trafficking. Crowe described people trafficking where many adults and children are forced into the sex industry as “modern day slavery”.

Speaking after the meeting, Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“The last two-days of meetings have been very informative with common agreement among the elected representatives that we need greater cohesion and a more co-ordinated response to tackle human trafficking, which is modern day slavery.

“Recent research from the EU suggests men, women and children that are trafficked are bought and traded as commodities with price tags of around €20,000 and that the trafficking of people generates more than €25 billion a year for criminal gangs.

“Although human trafficking is becoming more profitable for gangs and is on the increase, the number of convictions in the EU has dropped to 1,250 in 2010 from 1,500 in 2008.  Politicians, police services, human rights advocacy groups and social services all need to work together and across borders to ensure that nobody gets sold into slavery by these gangs.”