Have you seen suspicious activity that may amount to human trafficking? If so, please report your concerns to:

1800 666 111 or 999/112 or [email protected]

Human trafficking is a crime in Ireland, under the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008. It is also a human rights violation and the subject of international treaties to prevent, suppress and punish it.

For a situation to constitute human trafficking in Ireland it must involve:

Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person
By means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments
For the purpose of exploitation including sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, forced begging, forced criminality, organ removal or other types of exploitation

There is no requirement for a person to have crossed an international border for trafficking to have taken place- it can and does take place within national borders.

It is also important to understand that although people smuggling and human trafficking are linked, there are fundamental differences between the two: in particular, people smuggling involves the consent of the person being smuggled, while being trafficked is involuntary.