Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate all the speakers on their contributions and apologise for having to leave a few times to attend other meetings. We have had very impressive contributions from all the witnesses. As part of my work as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I have witnessed teenagers the same age as my own children being kept in cages, for more than six months in one case. That is what is happening in parts of Europe to migrant children. The witnesses have played their part today in seeking to break the shameful silence around this issue. I am interested in the witnesses' views on the EU's deal on migration with Turkey, which is deemed a third country of safe origin. It is no such thing but is, in fact, a dictatorship in which horrendous human rights abuses are taking place. It suits the EU to do that deal, however, because it keeps people out and there is apparently little interest in how migrants are being treated in Turkey. It is an appalling human rights situation and the EU is utterly complicit in it. It is a situation that must be ended. I thank all the speakers for their contributions.