The study, carried out by the renowned Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore, Maryland, states that evidence suggests that organised criminal gangs are helping international traffickers to establish trafficking routes in Ireland. It also states that organised crime outfits in Estonia and Latvia have allegedly trafficked women to Ireland.

The report was authored by a special anti-trafficking monitoring unit under the International Studies division of JHU. It notes that trafficking appears to be a growing problem in Ireland. The country report states that most trafficking here appears to be for the commercial sex industry.

"Up to 1,000 women are estimated to be in the sex trade [in Ireland], many of whom were brought in illegally from South America and eastern Europe, " the study says. While the academic team acknowledges that the Dublin sex industry is relatively small and new compared to other European capitals, they say there is still concern this could be changing.

Dr Mohamed Mattar, director of the Protection Project at JHU, which tracks trends and monitors law enforcement data on trafficking of persons for prostitution, said the country report for Ireland represented ongoing research which had been updated regularly.

The JHU report comes as new figures show that, in the past 12 months alone, over 30 young people under 18 who entered Ireland as unaccompanied minors seeking refugee status have disappeared from their HSE-run accommodation, amid concern that some may have been trafficked into prostitution by adults. None have been found. Of the 317 who have disappeared in similar circumstances since 2001, only a handful have turned up.

"If as many Irish children went missing, and remained missing, in the past five years, there would be outrage among parents and voters and instant and significant political reaction, " said Paul Gilligan, chief executive of the ISPCC.

The report also points to the statement that as many as 40 children a year are being trafficked to Ireland for either economic or sexual exploitation, according to a recent International Organisation for Migration report.

"Children aged three to 17 are being trafficked for a variety of reasons . . . for the sex industry, as child brides, or as workers in the underground economy. Child-trafficking investigations mainly deal with children from Romania, the former Yugoslavia and the coastal countries of West Africa. Nigerian children are reportedly brought to Ireland to work in the sex industry, " the Hopkins study says.