Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Apparently, Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan will not be present.

As the refugee crisis unfolded, someone told me that the tears of sympathy would soon dry up and policy in the EU would revert to type. That is starting to happen. The barriers are being raised again against refugees who are fleeing desperate circumstances. Fortress Europe is being re-established.

There are many aspects to this issue, but something that was of concern in the European Council's discussions was the talk of enlarging the mandate of FRONTEX. That mandate and FRONTEX's resources have increased exponentially in recent years. I wonder about FRONTEX and its approach to desperate people fleeing desperate circumstances. Its record is not good. I will cite a few instances. Recently, inflatable dinghies carrying refugees on the River Evros at the Turkish-Greek border were shot at by FRONTEX. Border officials have also stated that German police stationed there were involved in incidents in which refugee boats were shot at. In 2012, a Spanish patrol boat co-ordinated by FRONTEX and travelling at great speed off Lanzarote deliberately overran a refugee boat that had 25 people on board who were waiting to be picked up by the coast guard. Seven refugees were killed. In 2011, 63 refugees died of thirst after being at sea for 15 days in the Mediterranean even though FRONTEX and NATO ships that were involved in the assault on Libya at the time were aware of their presence.

In recent days, a refugee boat was shelled by Libyan soldiers or militia.

This raises the question as to what precisely FRONTEX is doing when mandated to go into the countries of origin of some of the refugees with the aim of what is described as stemming the flow of refugees. I am deeply concerned, and there is widespread criticism, that there is no transparency in FRONTEX. We cannot get real information about what it is doing but its record is not good. As we further expand its mandate, it is not clear precisely what it is doing. Certainly, signs are that Europe is trying by various means to close the door further on desperate people looking for refuge in Europe.

A particularly worrying example of this is the attempt to offload the problem onto Turkey and to co-operate with the Turkish regime. The Turkish regime has an appalling record on treating some of its own minority groups, especially the Kurds. It is widely believed Mr. Erdogan and the deep state in Turkey are behind the recent bombing directed at peaceful protesters in Turkey, yet it seems we are willing to do deals with, co-operate with and give resources to the Turkish regime, which has a very questionable record on human rights within its own borders and on the treatment of its own people. This is because we want to keep the problem out of Europe.

This speaks to the fundamental problem. I heard Deputy Martin state earlier — I presume he was directing his comments at some of us on the left — that it was completely wrong to blame Western policy for the rise of ISIS or the conditions that led refugees to flee from north Africa, Syria and Iraq to Europe. Of course, the Deputy could not be more wrong on that. The Turkish example highlights this.

In one way or another, Europe consistently co-operates and trades with, talks to and supports ruthless, vicious, despotic, brutal regimes right across the north African and Middle Eastern region. Now we are co-operating with Mr. Erdogan. We have done so with successive regimes in Iraq and are doing so with Israel in terms of its brutal persecution of the Palestinian people.

Another important example concerns the el-Sisi regime in Egypt, which is engaged in a vicious campaign of persecution, oppression, mass imprisonment and execution of its political opponents, to the extent that an election took place in the country in which there was no electorate. Nobody is voting. Some 16% of the electorate turned out for the elections in Egypt because no ordinary Egyptian believes they are anything other than a sham and rigged. They believe the el-Sisi regime is a brutal dictatorship, yet we are doing beef business with Mr. el-Sisi, and the Taoiseach recently met him. No voices are being raised in Europe about what Mr. el-Sisi is doing to his own people and the political opposition in his country. Similarly, no voices are being raised demanding sanctions against Israel for what it is doing, including in respect of the escalation in the number being thrown out of their homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. I include the Palestinians who have been killed by Israelis and settlers since the beginning of this month. No serious voices are being raised over these matters.

What does this do? Is it any wonder that against the background of Western hypocrisy and co-operation with these brutal regimes, people are driven into the hands of extremist groups such as ISIS? In some cases, we are actually doing business with regimes that finance groups such as ISIS. We must first show compassion and allow people into this Continent who need refuge. We must not try to stop people. Also, we need to change our hypocritical policy on dealing with the brutal regimes in the areas from which the refugees are fleeing.

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