Teenager from Ukraine with special needs trafficked to Ireland

A teenage Ukrainian girl was taken into emergency care due to concerns that she had been groomed at home and trafficked to Ireland.

According to the Irish Examiner, the case of the girl, who may have an intellectual disability is also suspected of having suffered neglect back in Ukraine, is among the latest batch of cases highlighted by the Child Law Project, which reports on family law cases, often involving neglect and abuse.

As the crisis in Ukraine rages on, there are growing fears that children there could be smuggled into Ireland. Tusla has also acknowledged that it is under pressure as a result of the large number of unaccompanied minors who are coming to our country.

A District Court issued an emergency care order for an unaccompanied minor who had arrived in Ireland from Ukraine in the company of a man who was not related to her, according to the case study found in the most recent batch of Child Law Project papers.

The social worker told the court that the child presented at the Ukrainian centre at the airport with no identification and accompanied by a man.

The child was interviewed by a social worker and initially said that the man was her uncle but then said that he was her cousin. It later transpired that the man was not related to her at all.

According to the report, the girl told authorities that she met the man in school and had known him for four years, that he bought her nice things and that her parents did not look after her.

Tusla had attempted to make telephone contact with the girl’s family using numbers in the child’s phone, but had been unsuccessful, and it was understood her mother and grandmother were in two different EU countries.

Shelter for trafficking victims delayed due to Ukrainian refugee crisis.

One of the people contacted, the mother’s former partner, told Tusla that the man the girl was with was not a good man and that she should be taken away from him.

The man was arrested and interrogated by the garda, but he was eventually released without being charged,and his whereabouts were currently unknown.

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