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The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, has today launched a revamp of the ‘Blue Blindfold’ website highlighting the crime of human trafficking. The newly designed blueblindfold.gov.ie site provides a user-friendly overview of how the crime manifests in Ireland, how members of the public can spot and report the signs of trafficking, and how the State supports these victims once identified. The ‘Blue Blindfold’ motif urges the public not to close their eyes to the signs of human trafficking.

Launching the updated site, the Minister said:

“A key element in the fight against human trafficking is an informed society, who are aware that exploitation, tantamount to slavery, continues to happen today in Ireland. Our revamped ‘Blue Blindfold’ website seeks to further educate the public on what human trafficking is and how it occurs in Ireland.

Human trafficking is driven by the principles of supply and demand. Public demand for cheap labour and sexual services creates the space in which criminal gangs thrive. Such gangs use deception to force vulnerable people into prostitution and, increasingly, into everyday employment sectors such as pop-up car washes, nail salons, domestic households and the agri-food sector. It is in these areas that the public may unwittingly encounter a victim of human trafficking.”

Traffickers, often members of highly organised criminal gangs, exert such extreme levels of control that victims are in a state of total subjugation. It is for this very reason that they are desperately dependent on others to help them escape this bondage.

The Minister concluded:

“Our redesigned website seeks to better inform the public on how to identify the signs of potential trafficking and how to report these concerns to An Garda Síochána. Every year Gardaí depend on information from the public who are in a unique position to provide vital intelligence for both victim identification and criminal investigation. Don’t close your eyes to human trafficking, visit our website and see how you can help us eradicate this crime in Ireland.”

The updated ‘Blue Blindfold’ website is available at www.blueblindfold.gov.ie. You can also follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AntiHumanTraffickingUnitIreland.