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A DECISION BY the government to outlaw forced labour, or modern day slavery, has been welcomed this evening.
The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), which has campaigned for the change for a number of years, said it “very much welcomes this legal amendment”.
“Forced labour is on the increase and without such a law, victims are not protected,” the organisation said in a statement. “Our experience is that victims will not come forward if there are not clear protections, rights and supports in place.”
Fauziah Shaari, a victim of forced labour, added, “We have fought hard for the law to be changed. I suffered at the hands of my employer. I was treated as a slave.
“I still have not found justice. The change in the law will help other victims to come forward and will make sure employers involved in forced labour will be punished.”
The change will bring Irish law in line with its commitments under the International Labour Organisation Convention No. 29 of 1930 on Forced or Compulsory Labour.
Gráinne O’Toole of MRCI said this “sends a strong message to employers” that the inhuman treatment of workers will not be tolerated by the State.
According to the definition of modern day slavery, it is an extreme form of exploitation that involves deception, coercion, threats, physical harm and/or debt bondage.
MRCI have dealt with more than 179 cases of forced labour over the past six years. Currently, victims are not recognised as victims of crime and the perpetrators are not criminalised. But when the proposed law is implemented, perpetrators of forced labour could face maximum sentences of up to life imprisonment.
The change comes as part of Alan Shatter’s newly-published Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) (Amendment) Bill. The general scheme has been forwarded to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for drafting, the Justice Minister announced earlier today.
He said the short piece of legislation was required to “transpose in full the substantive criminal law measures in an EU directive on human trafficking.
The directive provides for the criminalisation of trafficking for the purposes of forced begging and trafficking for criminal activities. Neither form of exploitation is covered by existing law.
Shatter explained:
In order to tackle recent developments in the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings, the EU directive adopts a broader concept of what should be considered human trafficking than previously…Human trafficking is an abhorrent abuse of human rights and our legislation must keep pace with global developments in this heinous crime.
He added: “I am also taking this opportunity, in the interest of clarity, to define the term ‘forced labour’ as used in the Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008. The term is not explicitly defined in the 2008 legislation. The general scheme provides that ‘forced labour’ has the same meaning as it has in International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention No. 29 of 1930 on Forced or Compulsory Labour. The ILO definition is ‘all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily’.”
Isnt god wonderful….
No….The universe is wonderful.
Your obviously more religous than scientific otherwise you would know your so called God did not create the Universe. Or this World for that matter.
I think there was a slight hint of sarcasm in James’s comment which you all missed
Nice work putting the caption over the actual object in the image…
Erhhhhhh…….they didn’t. Its above the word “at” in the caption right on the edge of the outer ring.
Infinitesmily grand!
Is that we’re the little bo***x Fitzpatrick comes from????
The world is flat, one god created all this and we don’t know who created him/her/it?
I’ve got your ring and new moon right here.
God
Invisible pink unicorn
SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing net energy decay, even in an open system). Einstein showed that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.
The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.
Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson does not create mass from nothing, but rather it converts energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy.
The supernatural cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.
EXPLAINING HOW AN AIRPLANE WORKS doesn’t mean no one made the airplane. Explaining how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Maker behind them. Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.
WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No one observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.
Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”
An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.
If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.
I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles: NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION and HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM
Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION
Babu G. Ranganathan*
(B.A. Bible/Biology)
Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS
*I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.
Wake me up when you’ve finished the lecture. Time and place. This is neither.
There’s a spacecraft leaving tomorrow for it be on it the lot of you
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