Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will speak for five minutes, during which time 125 people will be forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the UN report published yesterday, as a result of persecution, conflict, generalised violence and human rights violations. They will form part of the 65.3 million people who have been forcibly displaced worldwide, a 50% increase over the space of only five years. So many people have been displaced that if they made up a nation, it would be the 21st largest nation on earth. They have been forcibly displaced as a result of crises which largely have their roots in a system of capitalism and imperialism.

Forced migration is now a dominant feature of the world, driven by war. We know 85% of migrants who come to Greece come from countries that have seen western military intervention. The crisis is increasingly driven by climate change. James Hansen, perhaps the most respected climate scientist in the world, according to Naomi Klein, said that at our current emissions trajectory, we face the loss of all coastal cities, most of the world's large cities and all of their history, not in thousands of years' time, but as soon as the end of the century. Naomi Klein said if we do not demand radical change, we are headed for a whole world of people searching for homes that no longer exist.

What is the response of the European Union to this crisis? In this treaty, it says it is founded on the rule of law, respect for human rights and democracy. The response is utterly disgusting. Donald Tusk - not Donald Trump - told all potential illegal economic migrants, wherever they are from, not to come to Europe. That is the message from the head of the European Union Council. Even the UN was forced to criticise that, and said to call people illegal migrants is a shortcut by European leaders and that people are coming to Europe because of ongoing wars.

The deal that has been concluded with Turkey is absolutely disgusting. It is the implementation of Donald Trump's policy in Europe and, in effect, turns Turkey into a massive prison camp with walls. Money from the European Union has been given to a major human rights abuser in order to keep migrants out of Europe. So bad is the situation that it has been condemned by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The decision taken by Médicine Sans Frontières to no longer accept desperately needed funds from the European Union because of these policies shows how bad the situation is. Its international secretary general said the EU-Turkey deal goes one step further and has placed the very concept of refugee and the protection it offers in danger.

What is European Union doing? It is making the Turkish model the generalised model. This is about the externalisation of European borders. The deal it did with Turkey it will now do with 17 other countries and this will be discussed at the European Council. In a communication on the partnership framework with third countries under the European agenda on migration, the Commission states that increasing coherence between migration and development policy is important to ensure that development assistance helps partner countries to manage migration more effectively and incentivises them to effectively co-operate on the readmission of irregular migrants. It goes on to say that the same should be true of trade policies, notably where the EU gives preferential treatment to its partners, and that migration co-operation should be a consideration in the forthcoming evaluation of trade preferences under GSB-Plus.

Like the old deal with Gaddafi in Libya, the EU will pay 17 countries, many of which have human rights abuses, to deal with the migration crisis. That pushes the problem further and further away. The reality is that one cannot stop migration in a world of deep poverty, inequality, climate change and war. If one tries to stop it, in reality all one will do is kill people. Charles Heller was right about the withdrawal of Operation Trident, which was replaced with Operation Mare Nostrum, when he said that European policymakers have made themselves guilty of killing by omission. It is even more generalised than that. That is the end result of the policy, of which the blocking of aid to Calais is a microcosm.

If we want a decent world where people are not forced to flee their homes, we have to stop the European Union policies and that of the dominant 1% right around the world. We need to tackle the problems of climate change and end war and co-operation with NATO, which is strongly pointed at in the draft conclusions, and I am interested in hearing the comments of the Taoiseach on that. We need to use the world's resources in the interests of the mass of people to raise living standards and ensure everybody has a decent standard of living.

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