Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I am glad developing countries have been mentioned because we need to reflect on the extent of the work being done by fragile countries that have many needs of their own.

It is as though the poorest in the world are looking after and supporting those who are even poorer. That leads me to consider whether there is a need to rethink how we fund this whole area of migration. Are we ensuring that the funding is going into those areas of greatest need? I was just speaking to somebody who is back from Lesbos and was full of admiration for what ordinary Greek people and some of the small groups in society are doing there. She outlined to me the pressure that is on the Greek health system because they are trying to do so much. I have questions about whether we are putting the funding to the very best use. We had another meeting with a group about Syria recently and the group raised grave concerns about the apparent lack of collaboration between various NGOs working there. It is almost as if each of them has carved out its niche and is not giving anything on it. To me, it should be about coming together to see how we can work together, collaborate and divide the funding so that we do not have an overlap. This matter has been raising quite a number of alarm bells with me recently. I believe it would be good if we could start with almost a blank canvas in order that the funding could go directly where it is most needed.

The second point I wish to make is that we understand that conflict drives people from their homes. It is a question of their safety. The other factors that are driving people from their homes are a lack of human rights and food insecurity. To me, that is the bigger picture and that is where we are not doing enough. We are not doing enough to support people to stay in their countries of origin. Nobody should have to leave unless he or she really wants to, in my opinion. We look at countries the people are fleeing from and the appalling human rights and food insecurity in those countries. That brings me to how Western countries are undermining the ability of these countries to feed themselves through some of these appalling economic partnership agreements we are seeing, such as CETA. We speak out of both sides of our mouth all of the time. We have to grasp this, be much straighter than we have been and not give with one hand while taking with the other.

We spoke about vulnerable groups. There is one group that has not been mentioned, and another person I know has been doing some study on it. The group is young LGBT people who have been displaced. It is absolutely horrific for them and there is a lack of support. The other group I wish to mention is people with a disability. Those people get lost.

Finally, is the migration partnership framework really fit for purpose? I was on the Turkish-Syrian border a couple of years ago with one of the NGOs and I was commending Turkey at that stage. However, recent events are raising alarm bells about Turkey. We have seen the way in which people from the judiciary and the teaching profession have been taken to jail as well as, very alarmingly, the press. There is a whole suppression of freedom of the press.