Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Attempts to use the horrific murder of Jo Cox to drum up support against Brexit, as the leader of the Labour Party attempted to do, is reprehensible. She seemed to be an incredibly decent human being whose values will be well remembered given her role in dealing with refugees. Against that backdrop and in extending sympathy to her family and friends, we must mark the fact that the number of displaced persons on a global scale has reached 65 million. That is an indictment of Western society in particular and of the European Union which has stood four-square behind US imperialism in intervening in the Middle East in particular. I find it somewhat ironic that people are organising protests against the visit of Donald Trump, reprehensible and all as he is, but nonetheless he is an individual who has never been elected to office in the United States or here yet they allow the visit of Joe Biden, the associate of a war criminal, to come into this country without batting an eyelid.

Could the Minister of State, Deputy Dara Murphy, clarify what we are saying when we go into EU meetings about refugees? Points have been made about the deplorable agreement with Turkey and the scandalous role of that country in terms of human rights, such as building a wall along its southern borders, which makes it increasingly difficult for Syrians to seek safety. We hear from Turkish diplomats that it is to stop extremists getting into Turkey but that does not tally with the brutal assassination and shooting dead of eight Syrians on the Turkish border, three children, four women and one man, last weekend.

It is known that when Syrians enter Turkey, the reality there is incredibly bleak. While we are told they can get permits now and can get work, everyone is aware that the reality is otherwise. It is that Syrians, many of whom are highly qualified and some of whom are children, are working for a pittance on the black market. A total of 2.6 million registered Syrian refugees live in Turkey, more than half of whom are children. According to UNICEF, more than 80% of those children are not in education, and some of them are working in sweatshops, farms and so on for slave wages. This is the type of fortress Europe that is being built, and the EU-Turkey deal is absolutely draconian and incredibly regressive. The Council of Europe even went so far as to state it "at best strains and at worst exceeds the limits of what is permissible under European and international law". In a further regressive move on Friday, the Greek Government sidelined members of an independent authority that had blocked the deportation of Syrian refugees. The appeals committee had argued that Turkey does not uphold refugee law and therefore is not a safe country to which to return refugees, and I agree with that statement.

The EU-Turkey deal and the connected asylum proposals are part of a despicable and systemic attempt to push people and their suffering back off Europe's doorstep. Only two weeks ago, The Guardianpublished the official European Union documents outlining what is a new migration strategy. To stop refugees from reaching southern Europe from Africa, European leaders actually are proposing to partner with Sudan, the president of which is wanted for war crimes, and with Eritrea, the government of which is accused of crimes against humanity by the United Nations. Is this the type of Europe with which the Government wants Ireland to be associated? This is a replacement for Gaddafi's camps, which used to operate for the European Union. On top of this, I refer to the EU's May proposals to deal with the perceived refugee crisis, which actually is a European crisis for refugees. This is about clamping down on the free movement of people, no matter what the affront to international and human rights laws. Some of the most repressive proposals centre on amendments to the Dublin regulation. To give effect to new proposals, EU members will be obliged to exhaust all avenues to kick asylum applications back to the so-called safe third countries, which they are not, or the first countries of asylum. Does the Minister of State seriously suggest that Sudan and Eritrea will suddenly be designated as safe countries despite clear evidence to the contrary? It absolutely is against all best international human rights law, and, as other Deputies have stated accurately, we are outsourcing our migration control and setting a really poor example. This is causing untold misery to refugees and does not stop them from leaving their countries of origin. As Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan noted, the only way to stop refugees is to stop interfering in their countries. The first thing one can do is to end war and militarism, because nobody wants to move and leave his or her home.

All Europe is doing is enriching smugglers. One need only read the report published in The Guardian at the weekend about the trafficking of young children in Calais and Dunkirk. There have been appalling violations. What is the Minister of State doing to further the proposition that Ireland could use a process of humanitarian visas? It is a system that already exists and that could be put in place for unaccompanied minors, many of whom are almost on our shores in Calais and Dunkirk. They have been through extreme trauma and are entitled to a safe passage and safe haven. Why is Ireland not leading the charge in this regard? Professor Catheryn Costello hit the nail on the head when she stated:

By ignoring the predictable need for refuge, Europe creates a humanitarian crisis at its external borders, and a political one as arrivals continue to be chaotic and unmanaged. ... The alternative is to make humanitarian visas accessible, provide people with ... asylum and [so on].

Is the Minister of State going out and sending his officials to invite people to seek safe haven in Ireland? That is a policy with which Irish citizens would agree.

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