WikiLeaks: Foster Care Children in Ireland Used as Sex Slaves

“For at least the past few years, children in Ireland’s government-run foster-care system have been disappearing, only to be found later working as sex slaves in brothels or private homes. And incredibly, the Irish government has not even been keeping statistics on the number of cases. The revelations, based on leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, were made public in early June by the Irish Independent. The explosive documents from the American embassy in Dublin were handed to the newspaper by the whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks.

According to the cables, U.S. diplomats compiling a yearly report on human trafficking in the country learned of the problem from officials with Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE). The study containing the explosive information was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington.

In addition to assessing the nation’s efforts to fight human trafficking, the documents contain the startling admissions from the Irish government that shocked observers around the world. A 2009 cable detailing a briefing by the HSE, for example, tells the story of two minors who went missing from the foster-care system. They were located by Irish police in 2008 working in the sex industry.

Another cable discusses foreign-born children working as slaves in brothels, restaurants, and households. The kids, being found in towns and cities across the nation, had all disappeared from foster care. Chinese children in Ireland were believed to be at particularly high risk of being exploited, according to HSE officials.

Separate cables based on Irish intelligence reports detailed the human-trafficking operations of two Chinese Communist Party-linked Triad gangs operating in Ireland. The documents revealed “strong Chinese involvement in the trafficking of children, some of whom end up working as sex slaves in brothels,” reported the Independent in another article last week.
In February of 2009, the Irish Times reported that almost 500 children who arrived in Ireland without parents over a nine-year period had gone missing from the foster care system. At least some of those likely ended up in forced prostitution, according to experts cited in the article.

Of course, reports of widespread sex slavery in Ireland are nothing new. In 2006, a documentary shed light on the brutal enslavement of Eastern European women and girls in a shadowy sex trafficking underworld operating all across the nation.

The recently leaked cables, however, claimed the nation had made “significant strides” in fighting human trafficking over the last few years. As evidence, it pointed to the prosecution of five individuals. But since there are no statistics on the number of children disappearing from foster care and forced into sex slavery, it was unclear whether the problem was in fact being dealt with seriously.

Ireland, of course, is not alone. The latest revelations about the nation’s problems could easily have come from any number of other countries. Close by, a recent headline in the U.K. Guardian read: “Hundreds of trafficked children are disappearing from the care system.” A 2008 piece in the same paper entitled “Lost 400 children may have been trafficked into sex or drugs trade” also dealt with kids disappearing from government care.

Indeed, major problems with government foster-care systems and sexual abuse seem to be something of an international tragedy. In Sweden, for example, a 2009 government report showed that half of all children growing up in the state foster care over 70 years were sexually abused while in the system. A 1970s scandal involving a brothel using children from the foster-care system also ensnared some of the nation’s top political leaders.

Even more recently, the former police chief for one of Sweden’s largest cities was taken down for running a sex-slavery operation and raping children. And French “Culture Minister” Frederic Mitterrand admitted in a 2005 autobiography that he traveled to Southeast Asia to purchase sex from young boys. Examples from Europe are virtually endless.”

“Experts say many of the missing foster-care children end up in the sex trade. Former State Senator Nancy Schaeffer, former FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted Gunderson, and other officials have even alleged that some of those children are actually abused by high-ranking individuals in government, pedophile rings, and satanic cults.

The cables relating to Ireland’s missing foster-care kids ending up in the sex trade have not yet been publicly released. And the nature and full scope of the problem remains unclear. But analysts hope that more information will become available as public pressure to tackle the outrages mounts.”

WikiLeaks: Foster Care Children in Ireland Used as Sex Slaves
[New American 6/15/11 by Alex Newman]

“Children have been going missing from State care and ending up working as sex slaves in brothels for at least three years, leaked US embassy cables reveal.”

“According to one cable, the HSE said some foreign children who went missing from care had been retraced to brothels, restaurants and private households where they may have been used as domestic slaves.

The missing minors were found in various towns throughout the country.

Disturbingly, the unnamed HSE officials admitted statistics on the number of these children were not being maintained.

A February 2009 cable, detailing a HSE briefing, said gardai had located two minors – both missing from HSE care – in the sex industry during the previous year.

The cable, which gave a detailed assessment of Irish efforts to combat people trafficking, was forwarded to the office of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

According to the dispatch, HSE officials believed Chinese children were at greatest risk of being trafficked.

They also claimed traffickers bringing such children to Ireland were likely to be non-nationals who preyed on their compatriots.

When a child under the age of 17 arrives in Ireland without a parent or guardian, they are automatically placed in foster care or hostel facilities administered by the HSE.

However, each year dozens of children go missing from care. It is suspected many end up in the hands of the traffickers who arranged for them to come into the country in the first place.

According to the cable, gardai indicated trafficking gangs were increasingly targeting Ireland due to the ease with which children could escape from HSE facilities.

Briefings received by the embassy between 2006 and 2008 indicated there was no evidence at the time to substantiate suspicions children were being trafficked into the sex trade in Ireland.

However, for the past three years the HSE has acknowledged in briefings with American officials that trafficking of minors into the sex trade is happening.”
Kids in HSE care ended up working in brothels
[Independent 6/3/11 by Tom Brady and Shane Phelan]

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