30/06/2008

Human Traffickers Sending Women To Rural Areas

New research has revealed more than half of all women trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation are forced to work in rural areas of the country.

Figures released by an anti-human trafficking group has also shown three minors were among 44 women who broke free from the sex trade and went looking for help in 2007.

A total of 27 of these women were sent directly to Ireland by traffickers from countries as far reaching as Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya, Burundi, Malawi, Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Thailand, Brazil, Romania, and Lithuania.

More than half of the victims were trafficked into locations outside Dublin such as Kilkenny, Waterford, Sligo, Athlone, Dundalk, Drogheda, Monaghan and Donegal.

Geraldine Rowley of Ruhama, an organisation that provides support services to women trafficked for sexual exploitation, said the figures show the sex industry has gone nationwide and has seen a significant increase in the practice for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

"The reality is pimps are trafficking women into the country and some of them are putting women in to very remote areas," she said. "It shows we have a serious trafficking problem which is not just urban based.

"It must also be accepted that women who have been trafficked are strictly controlled, very afraid and live in fear - so they are unlikely to make or have contact with organisations such as RuhaHuman Traffickers Sending Women To Rural Areasma."

(DW)

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