Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Crowe has covered most of the main points, but we should look at some of the statistics and figures since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in 2011. These are startling. Almost 500,000 people have lost their lives, some 13.5 million people are in need of aid, 4.6 million refugees are outside of Syria and 6.5 million people are displaced within Syria. Turkey is the largest host country, with 2.7 million refugees. However, the country with the largest proportion by population of refugees is Lebanon, where there are 1.3 million Syrian refugees.

This means that one in every five people within Lebanon is now a Syrian refugee, the highest ratio of any country. Syria is the largest generator of refugees, as well as having the highest number people who are currently being displaced. Since June 2015, 1 million people, most of them refugees, have tried to flee to the safety of Europe, of whom 4,000 died in the attempt, one in two of whom was Syrian. Like previous speakers, I commend the Naval Service for its contribution between May and December 2015 and the work its members carried out in search and rescue operations. The figures speak for themselves - over 8,500 people were rescued by the three Naval Service ships on patrol in the Mediterranean. The Minister has just sanctioned the deployment of another ship in a couple of weeks time which we hope will take up the search and rescue role. It is important that its role be confined to search and rescue.

Deputy Seán Crowe touched on the EU deal with Turkey which was agreed in March. We voted to support the plan, but it shows complete disregard for international law on the rights of migrants. The other issue I have is that it is not getting much public attention, even though arguments relating to mass expulsions have been made. The deal focuses largely on Syrian refugees, but that does not tell the whole story as many refugees come from other countries, including Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and Eritrea. I do not want us to create a hierarchy of refugees. The focus should not be on one particular country as that would be detrimental.

On the question of our obligations, we had a relocation and resettlement scheme for 2016 in which we gave a commitment to take in a couple of thousand Syrian refugees, but to date only 11 have actually been resettled. We need to speed up the process. I do not know how we can do it, but we must at least hasten the relocation and resettlement programme because the people concerned are desperate. We need to do other things such as enhancing our legal challenge in terms of migration. I echo the call made by Deputy Seán Crowe that we should be more vocal on the EU deal. If the Minister is to make a closing contribution to the debate, she might touch on the possibility of a hierarchy or refugees being created as a result of this deal.

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