Immigration gardaí are investigating several cases of suspected trafficking of children into the state from Nigeria.
Two children were recently placed by gardaí into local authority care after they arrived at Dublin Airport accompanied by adults in suspicious circumstances. Gardaí are making inquiries to establish the identities of these children and are also pursuing criminal investigations.
In two other cases children who were taken into care were subsequently released once their identities had been established.
Det Insp John O'Driscoll from the Garda National Immigration Bureau said gardaí were satisfied that in some cases children had been brought to the country illegally to be reunited with families already claiming asylum here. In others, there were suspicions of abuse of the social welfare system by adults making multiple claims for a single child using false documents.
"We have concerns about the circumstances surrounding the arrival of some children in the country from Nigeria," he said.
"We are conducting a number of investigations in order to establish the true situation in these cases. While we are aware of a number of potential abuses, we do not have evidence of children being trafficked into the country for the purposes of sexual exploitation."
In one case currently before the courts a Nigerian woman with residency status in Ireland has been charged with trafficking a five-year-old girl. Ms Margaret Birharay, who lives in Kildare arrived, with the child on a flight from Nigeria via Amsterdam last May. She has been released on bail, and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions. Gardaí have requested that a man who subsequently presented himself as the child's father undergo DNA tests.
In another case last month a woman was detained at Dublin Airport on a flight from Nigeria via Amsterdam on suspicion of trafficking a three-year-old Nigerian girl. She was released without charge pending further investigation and has made a claim for asylum here. That child is also being cared for by a health board.
Gardaí are also concerned that immigrant women who have had children in Ireland and immediately applied for passports for them could use the documents to bring into the country other children of similar ages.
Meanwhile, an Oireachtas committee heard evidence last week from a social policy analyst that, while it was an offence to smuggle or traffick children into Ireland, it was clearly not an offence to traffick or smuggle them out of the State. Dr Pauline Conroy also questioned whether current trafficking legislation clearly applied to children as well as adults.
Dr Conroy raised concerns at the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights about an EU directive which is expected to be implemented in member-states within a year. The directive proposes offering short-term residence permits to women in return for their co-operation with the authorities in each member-state against the suspected criminals.
She said the directive was obligatory for Ireland, but questioned how it would operate here. "My reservation about it is that it includes children," she said.