International Protection Bill 2026: Committee Stage (Resumed) and Remaining Stages
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-25
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Alan Kelly (LAB), Tipperary North

I move amendment No. 22:
In page 32, between lines 34 and 35, to insert the following:
"(f) an applicant who is a presumed or identified victim of trafficking.".
These are grouped amendments along similar lines across the legislation. Amendment No. 22 inserts "an applicant who is a presumed or identified victim of trafficking". This is obviously critically important if added to amendment No. 28 as it exempts presumed and identified victims of trafficking from any legal obligation to travel to a screening centre and from related criminal penalties. This corresponds with what I spoke about earlier about people who are vulnerable, the profiling of them and the manner in which they are being treated. The Labour Party does not see any obligation as to why, as a country, we are going to treat them in this way. The fact they will not be exempt from this legal obligation really is a stain on our country if it proceeds. In tandem with that, amendment No. 57 is to ensure that vulnerability assessments take account of whether a person may be a victim of trafficking. Currently in this section it is not clear. In fact, it needs to be made clear that vulnerability assessments take account of whether a person could have been the victim of trafficking. It needs to be stated in the legislation. Amendment No. 177, which is also grouped, is again along the same lines and exempts victims of trafficking from the accelerated procedure. Throughout the Bill, we are exempting those who are victims of trafficking from going through what, unfortunately, many others are being put though as a result of this legislation. Amendment No. 179 ensures that the victims of trafficking will have special procedural guarantees not to be subject to the accelerated procedure.
Throughout all of these five amendments we are ensuring that those who are, unfortunately, victims of trafficking, which we can see from recent reports continues to be a huge issue in this country, are treated in a dignified, humane and compassionate way and are not dealt with in a manner that will be a stain on our society if we allow this legislation to go through. This tries to ensure that those victims who have had their lives turned upside down are treated well by this State.

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Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25