Human trafficking is a crime and a violation of human rights. Ireland has a human trafficking problem. Women and children are trafficked throughout the country for sexual exploitation. Throughout the world no country is exempt from human trafficking and throughout Ireland no county is necessarily exempt. Trafficking can happen anywhere and it’s a hidden crime for the most part.
The majority of people being trafficked throughout Europe and in Ireland are women and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The second most common form of trafficking is for labour exploitation.
Hotels are a common venue for human trafficking because they are common venues for prostitution and prostitution is the context in which sex trafficking occurs. Hotels offer anonymity and traffickers can move their victims from hotel to hotel.
All kinds of hotel and guest accommodation can be used by traffickers. It is naive for any of us to think that any hotel is invulnerable to this crime as it can happen anywhere and the best way for hotels to prevent it and tackle it is to train staff.
In the States and internationally hotels are increasingly stepping up and taking responsibility by training their staff to recognise the signs of trafficking and to report it. Hotels are not only doing this to tackle human rights abuses and make their hotels safer places to stay for all but they are also doing it as there have been lawsuits taken against hotels who failed to report victims. Having staff trained will make it more difficult for traffickers to conduct criminal activities undetected within a hotel. It also means that victims can be identified and spared years of rape, abuse and suffering. Anti-trafficking training should be part of standard health and safety training in a hotel.
Having staff trained will also make guests feel more comfortable and that they are staying in a hotel that has a social conscience; that values its guests, its staff and their safety and welfare.
Guests can also be aware of human trafficking and can report suspected cases. Polaris, an American organisation working to combat human trafficking, notes that in the States, when it comes to reporting trafficking victims in hotels, over three quarters of the reports are made by people who have suspected that someone is a victim, or who have come into contact with a trafficking victim. That is why it is so important for hotel staff to be aware of human trafficking, and to know how to respond and how to report cases. Already in Ireland hotel staff who have had anti-trafficking training have reported cases to the Gardaí.
We encourage hotel guests and staff in hotels that would like to see anti-trafficking training introduced as part of standard staff health and safety training in hotels to email MEPs to ask them to raise this issue at European level. We provide a template email for your convenience:
Additionally hotel guests can send an email to their hotel before booking to ask if their hotel has had anti-trafficking training. This encourages hotels to take responsibility and to train their staff. Hotels that have their staff trained in anti-trafficking are in a position to be vigilant to prevent and deter this crime.
Cited: https://polarisproject.org/blog/2016/02/10/human-trafficking-hotel-industry