Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dr. Muldoon and Ms Ward before the committee. In 2018, I travelled to Sicily to see the migration system for myself at the invitation of the Italian Government. While I was there, I met a number of what were wrongfully termed refugees, people who were, in fact, migrants. I have nothing against migrants travelling to better economic circumstances. The Irish have done it more than most. The stories I heard from the men were normal travelling circumstances, although very rough circumstances, but it was horrendous for the women. I met a number of young sub-Saharan women and girls who had started to be trafficked. They were brought to Tripoli and put into prostitution for a period of time before they were put on a boat across the Mediterranean. They arrived in Sicily and reported as refugees or migrants without documentation. They were processed and when they went through processing, I understand from some of the people we spoke to, they came out of the processing centres and were immediately picked up again by the traffickers and put straight back into the sex trade. What some of those young girls went through was horrific.

I am not sure what evidence there is to support the following and I am asking that of Dr. Muldoon and Ms Ward, but I understand there have been some cases in Ireland of young girls being brought here as refugees or migrants, put into direct provision and used in the sex trade. If that is happening, it is outrageous. I am interested in our guests' views on that matter.

Some 29,717 cases of domestic violence were today reported in the media. Are we doing enough in direct provision centres to protect families and, in particular, young children from domestic violence? It has been said that the lockdown related to Covid-19 has led to an acceleration or increase in domestic violence because people were confined to their homes. People have been confined to direct provision centres for quite some time now so I am wondering if there has been an impact in that regard.

Sites for direct provision were identified in an almost clandestine way and the communities concerned became aware of the likelihood that a local hotel was about to start housing refugees, migrants or whatever you want to call them. I went to London in the 1960s, a time of "No Irish, no blacks, no dogs", and perhaps the same sort of thing has happened here. Everybody I have ever heard speak publicly about direct provision has said his or her community would be willing to accept five, ten or 15 families until a move is made to put five or ten families into a particular area, at which time there are a plethora of reasons as to why that particular area is not suitable for any migrants.

I am a former educator and something of great concern to me is the number of children who have grown up in migration and direct provision centres, attended school and have thereafter been prevented access to third-level education. Some of those people started their education in primary school in a direct provision centre and it is horrific to think that at the end of secondary school, some of them are still in direct provision. I know we took a number of them into further education during my time in further education and never had a difficulty with bringing in people from a direct provision centre. Is it not an outright abuse of human rights that we would prevent a child or a young adult from accessing our educational services when they have been living in this country for such a long time? We talk so much about the generosity of the Irish, boxing above our weight and how wonderful we are, but we have treated migrants in an appalling way. I travelled to the UK in the 1960s. I travelled on the boat with men who could only carry the shovel they had and speak Irish because they did not have English when they went over there. They arrived in the most hostile place and were treated worst of all by their own. I see horrors when I look at some of the direct provision centres. My colleague mentioned for-profit direct provision centres and that is a horrendous and outrageous idea. I know there is a commitment in the programme for Government to end direct provision but I have been listening to commitment on this, that and the other all my life and I will believe it when I see it. I am concerned about the children. I appreciate the work our guests do with children and their families. However, I am concerned about the prostitution issue, education and violence. I thank our guests for being here today and appreciate their time.