Northern Ireland is being used as a back door for smuggling migrants into the Republic and Britain, a British House of Commons committee report claimed today.
The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said in its report on organised crime in the North that there was anecdotal evidence that paramilitaries were involved in human trafficking.
The Committee, chaired by Conservative MP Sir Patrick Cormack, said: "While we were told that there is no evidence of large-scale people smuggling operations in Northern Ireland, there is evidence that Northern Ireland is being used as a back door by those wishing to enter both Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
The committee said it had also been informed by Northern Ireland Office Security Minister Paul Goggins that there had been an increase in the number of foreign nationals working in prostitution in Belfast.
However the minister had not received evidence confirming that paramilitaries were involved in human trafficking and he was awaiting the results of Operation Pentameter, the UK-wide police-led operation looking at the trafficking of women for the sex trade.
The committee of MPs also said it had received extraordinary reports of alliances between republican and loyalist organisations for certain organised crime activities, often drug related.
Petrol fraud, cigarette smuggling, intellectual property crime such as CD and DVD piracy, extortion, drugs, armed robbery and cash-in-transit attacks, money laundering and illegal dumping were identified as major areas of organised crime activity in Northern Ireland during their evidence sessions.
The committee stressed the need not just for the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the law enforcement agencies to fight organised crime but for Government, the community at large and politicians to join them.
However it admitted that Sinn Féin's refusal to endorse the PSNI undermined that fight.
The committee expressed concern at the failure of Government to move quickly enough to regulate charities following claims that paramilitary groups were exploiting them to launder funds.
Its report also expressed concern about the involvement of professionals in organised crime which was becoming more sophisticated in the North.
"It is incumbent on the professional bodies, such as the Law Society and the Institute of Chartered Accounts to satisfy themselves that their membership requirements are sufficiently rigorous and that observance of them is carefully monitored," the committee of MPs said.
PA