SIX PEOPLE HAVE been arrested as part of an investigation into human trafficking after a house in Meath was searched last night.

The extensive operation was launched after gardaí received reports of people being falsely imprisoned at a house in Navan.

Three men and two women, aged in their 40s and 60s, and a teenage girl were arrested during the planned search of a house at Castletown, Kilpatrick at around 8pm.

They are all being held under section four of the Criminal Justice Act at various garda stations in Meath.

There are also reports that up to 20 people were found at the house and that a number of people are being cared for by authorities.

In a statement gardaí said the operation was ongoing and they would not release any more information.

‘Hypocrisy’

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 to Keelin Shanley today, Edel McGinley, director of the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, said the organisation has been calling for a regularisation of all undocumented people in the State for over six years.

That’s something that’s really necessary in terms of protecting people’s rights and upholding labour standards in the Irish context.

McGinley described this regularisation as a type of amnesty for undocumented migrants who have been resident in Ireland for over four years.

“We estimate [there are] between 20,000 to 26,000 undocumented people in the State, and I suppose there is a hypocrisy in terms of successive governments going to the US to advocate for the rights of the Irish undocumented and doing very little here in the State to respond to the needs of undocumented migrants here,” she said.

- with reporting by Órla Ryan

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