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MINISTER SIMON COVENEY today secured approval to sign a letter of intent with the US to allow the exchange of international travel information of convicted child sex offenders.
The approval by Cabinet today will allow An Garda Síochána to sign the letter of intent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations to facilitate the sharing of travel information of sex offenders from the US to Ireland and vice versa.
While such information has been shared in the past, this memorandum puts the agreement between the two countries on a more formal footing, according to a government spokesperson.
Operation Angel Watch
This exchange of information forms part of a US programme entitled ‘Angel Watch’, established by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to aid the prevention of child sex tourism.
Operation Angel Watch targets individuals who have previously been convicted of sexual crimes against a child and who may pose a potential new threat by travelling overseas for the purpose of sexually abusing or exploiting minors.
The project uses publicly available sex offender registry information and passenger travel data to strategically alert foreign law enforcement partners of a convicted child predator’s intent to travel to their country. In 2015, over 2,100 notifications to more than 90 countries were made through the programme.
With Ireland agreeing to continue co-operating with such a scheme, the US has made similar approaches to other EU Member States. The UK and Slovakia have both signed-up to the agreement.
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Sensible!
Why should stuff like this even wait for approval? Should be a no brainer!
@Dermot Foley: you’re right but the problem is that the laws haven’t caught up with modern times.
@B9xiRspG: but the good part is that modern times is exposing the offenders , unlike in the past when it was all swept under the carpet .
So how about sharing the information for all persons convicted of a crime.
@hasnooneasked: it would take up far too much time. In some states in America you can get serious jail time for 3 strikes of anything. It can be swearing in front of a child, jaywalking, and then walking home souped.
Plus, they have the highest rate of imprisoned people, its much harder to get jail time here though.
Everyone should have information on child sex abusers in their area. Or any sexual deviant for that matter. Protecting the pedo’s and nothing for the ordinary joe soap.
@Tony Murphy: I ‘m inclined to agree, but the article only states that they use a site called Angel Watch that pools public information. If the information’ s already public, anyone can Google it. I think a fair few need protection against thugs who don’t mind an excuse to beat some innocent man up because he looks a bit like some evil abuser from a different country.
Shocking it’s not already being done, infact outrageous
While our ministers for justice and garda were too busy vilifying whistleblowers.
Brilliant. Hopefully we can stop all the american pedo’s from coming here. We have/had enough. Leave the kids alone.
have your say