The Labour Party is examining British legislation on forced labour with a view to preparing a specific law to criminalise offending employers in Ireland.
Joe Costello TD said the party was examining legislation passed in the UK in 2009 which made it an offence to hold a person in slavery or subject them to forced labour.
“The Labour Party has passed it to our legal advisers with a view to preparing legislation to deal with the loopholes in the present system,” Mr Costello said.
About 20 members of Migrant Rights Centre Ireland yesterday held a protest outside the Dáil to mark International Day for the Abolition of Slavery.
The protest was addressed by TDs Robert Dowds and Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, with Mr Ó Ríordáin describing the issue of forced labour as “effective slavery”.
Gráinne O’Toole, workplace and project leader with the centre, said that over the past six years it had dealt with 160 cases of forced labour in Ireland, but said this was “the tip of the iceberg”.