The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Alan Shatter TD, has announced the publication of the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill 2013 which will fully transpose the criminal law provisions of an EU directive which expands the definition of human trafficking to ensure that people are not exploited for the purposes of forced begging and trafficking for criminal activities.
Minister Shatter said: “Trafficking in human beings should not be tolerated and I believe that everything possible should be done to ensure the protection of those vulnerable to human trafficking and to bring to justice those who benefit from it. The Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 already criminalises human trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, labour exploitation (including subjecting a person to forced labour) and exploitation for the removal of human organs.”
The new Bill, he added “adopts the definition of forced labour in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention of 1930 on Forced or Compulsory Labour and will essentially incorporate into Irish law the ILO definition of forced labour. Subject to certain specific exceptions, it is defined under the Bill as “a work or service which is exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily.”