The Irish government is failing to protect victims of human trafficking, according to the country’s human rights watchdog.

In a report submitted to the Council of Europe, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) said there is a “deficit” in the protection of victims of trafficking and called on the Irish government to act immediately to ensure victims are properly identified and protected.

“Victims of human trafficking in Ireland are not getting the kinds of supports they should be getting,” said Emily Logan, the organisation’s chief commissioner.

Logan met with members of the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings (Greta), who visited Ireland last week. They are examining how the Irish state deals with human trafficking and how victims are supported and protected. Their second evaluation report is due to be published in 2017, four years after the group’s initial report highlighted numerous gaps in the protections given to victims of trafficking in Ireland.

Colin Smith, a leading Irish human rights barrister who specialises in trafficking law, said IHREC’s report highlights the “unhappy fact” that Ireland lacks a coherent anti-trafficking system capable of effectively prosecuting and punishing traffickers while also protecting their victims.

“It underlines, in particular, the urgent need for a statutory mechanism to identify victims of trafficking,” said Smith. “Every day that passes without substantive reform means that traffickers are going unpunished and victims are going unprotected. We need to move away from thinking of trafficking as an immigration problem and towards a system that is quick and fair, and that treats human trafficking as a serious human rights issue.”

Logan highlighted the case of a 54-year-old Vietnamese woman known as “Ms P”, who was charged with drug offences after being arrested by Irish police during a raid on a cannabis grow house in 2012. Ms P said she was trafficked, but the police did not recognise her as a victim and she was detained for nearly three years. Last year her case against the police was heard in the High Court and the judge ruled that the scheme for identifying and protecting trafficked victims in Ireland was inadequate under EU law.

“The identification process has not improved for victims of trafficking in Ireland,” said Logan.

The report said reform of Ireland’s system for the early identification of trafficking victims was “long overdue”. Logan urged the Irish government to legislate immediately for the identification and protection of victims of trafficking.

“We are saying it should be included as a piece of legislation which obliges the state to comply,” she said. “The likelihood is that the victims will get a better response.”

Sole competence for the identification of potential victims of trafficking is with the Irish police, which the report said “does not represent good practice”. There is concern that, without reform, unidentified victims will experience further human rights violations.

Earlier this year, the US State Department’s annual report (pdf) on Trafficking in Persons (TiP) said victims of forced labour had been identified in the Irish restaurant industry and in car washes. Moreover, for the first time, a non-EU person was identified as a victim of trafficking in the Irish fishing sector.

The IHREC report raised concerns that no prosecutions have taken place in relation to human trafficking for labour exploitation, even though eight potential victims were reported in 2014. The commission said labour inspections must be properly resourced and targeted at high risk sectors such as domestic and restaurant work, the maritime industry, car-washing services and agriculture. The report called on the Irish government to criminalise the use of services that are the object of labour exploitation.

Logan said she had been approached by people in the Irish agri-food sector who have alleged exploitation. Early next year, an IHREC advisory committee involving various trade unions will be set up to focus on labour issues.

Irish human rights groups and NGOs have previously expressed concern about how potential trafficked victims are treated. The Immigrant Council of Ireland’s anti-trafficking manager, Nusha Yonkova, welcomed the report and expressed support for its recommendations.

“Ireland is failing victims of human trafficking,” she said. “The IHREC submission makes it clear that little progress has been made since the first Greta visit in 2012.”

In a statement, Ireland’s Department of Justice said they had not yet had the opportunity to consider the report’s recommendations in full. The department added that they had consulted with IHREC and included their recommendations in the second national plan to prevent human trafficking, which was published in October.