Child trafficked to Kilkenny for prostitution

GARDAI are working alongside other state agencies to provide a safe place for a Nigerian minor who was forced to work as a prostitute in Kilkenny city.

In a harrowing case at Kilkenny District Court yesterday (Tuesday) solicitor Michael Lanigan told the court that the 17-year-old had spoken with members of Ruhama a voluntary organisation who work with the victims of trafficking of women and children. "They are satisfied that this child has been trafficked from Nigeria," he told the court before handing in a report from the organisation to the judge. Mr Lanigan also told the court that gardai had received documentation from the Nigerian embassy who had spoken with the minor, who cannot be named for legal reasons. "The Nigerian authorities have provided the gardai with a certificate of registration of birth and documentation that has been certified by the Edo state in Nigeria and gardai are satisfied that she is 17." However gardai are now investigating whether the young girl's identity is being used by human traffickers in the United Kingdom after being supplied with a photograph from the UK authorities of a girl claiming to have the same identity. "The photograph supplied of the person of that name does not correspond with the minor in question," Mr Lanigan told the court. The girl was arrested following a raid on a suspected brothel at Poyntz Lane on June 28. She was charged with failing to produce a valid passport or other form of identification when requested to do so by gardai. The minor told gardai during an interview that she got a direct flight from Nigeria to Dublin. However there are no direct flights from Nigeria to Dublin and gardai are continuing to investigate how the teenager entered the country. She spent eleven days in custody in the women's prison in Mountjoy while gardai established her identity and whether she was a minor. At yesterday's (Tuesday) court sitting Judge William Harnett ordered that the HSE intervene in the case and remanded her to Oberstown Girls School until July 22. "This is a 17-year-old who was brought into the country and had her passport taken from her and was forced into prostitution. There is no greater definition of at risk that this young lady and I am conscious of the fact that she is being held in prison," Judge Harnett remarked. Solicitor Michael Lan-igan informed the judge that he was aware that there was a bed available for the young girl at Oberstown Girls School. "This will give the HSE the opportunity to put together some package that will give her safety and security and then we can deal with the criminal aspect of the case. The Nigerian embassy can't reissue her with a passport while she is still in prison," he added. Judge Harnett told the court that the minor was brought to Ireland most likely for the purposes of putting her into slavery. "She is particularly vulnerable as she has three younger siblings in Nigeria and she was put under pressure that she had to provide for them," he said before remanding her to Oberstown to appear before Kilkenny District Court on July 22. Meanwhile in May a 25-year-old Chinese woman was convicted of running a brothel at a premises on Collier's Lane, just a few hundred meters away.

KilKenny People