Northern Ireland must open its eyes to human trafficking - Ford

5.22.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 21st Sep 2010

Justice Minister David Ford

Justice Minister David Ford has said the support and vigilance of the public is vital in tackling human trafficking.

Speaking in the Assembly, the Minister said that the aim is to make Northern Ireland a hostile place for traffickers and whilst there had been recent successes in recovering potential victims, the police require the support of the public to tackle this clandestine crime.

David Ford: "Human trafficking is a vile and wicked crime. The degree of brutality, misery and suffering involved is difficult to grasp, and sadly, it exists in Northern Ireland. Let's also call it for what it is - human trafficking is human slavery - whether it be for sexual exploitation, labour exploitation or domestic servitude.

"Today's motion calls on me and my Executive colleagues to raise awareness among the public of this despicable crime to assist in securing prosecutions. I agree that greater awareness is required and this debate today will go some way to help with that process."

The Minister outlined a number of the measures that have been taken to raise awareness of human trafficking including an awareness seminar for frontline staff from health, social services, education, law enforcement, legal, religious and voluntary and community organisations.

Multilingual leaflets have also been produced for victims to point them towards help that is available and the national Blue Blindfold campaign was launched in Northern Ireland in February 2010.

The Minister said, "I congratulate the PSNI and OCTF partners for their work in this area. The co-operation between forces across the UK and the Republic is strong. However, the police need the support of the public in order to recover more victims and arrest the traffickers.

The main thing the public can do is to report suspicions to the police and cut off the demand for human trafficking. I would urge anyone with any suspicions to report them to the police immediately."