Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic today. However, I am concerned that this is the only debate we are likely to have on this issue for some time as there seems to be a lack of political will to face up to the reality of the devastating crisis that we face as Europeans.

If I or any of my colleagues in this Chamber were consistently marginalised and refused an opportunity to speak, an opportunity to have our voices heard or an opportunity to stand up for the people who elected us, that would be viewed as an infringement of our civil liberties as public representatives. There would be uproar, as we claim the right to speak as elected representatives who deserve to be treated justly and fairly as equals. Upholding civil liberties and human rights is vital in every civil society. We are the first to defend our own. We love our own and yet we seem to have a significant issue with people who are viewed as the other or somewhat different.

This is particularly evident when we speak about those from the Middle East, those people who travel from war torn countries in the hope of escaping death and obtaining the safety that every human being, regardless of race or creed, deserves. These people are made out to be somewhat alien by media. Take for example the refugee camp in Calais. This camp is regularly referred to as "The Jungle". I doubt this is down to an abundance of luscious rivers and trees but rather a view of those that living there. I do not know whether the term is intentionally racist but am hugely uneasy with the term and the fact it seems to be generally accepted without question. We reduce people to numbers, to the point of being subhuman. We reduce people to habitants of that so-called "jungle" to the point that they can be referred to as animals or, as one journalist put it, "cockroaches". These points in and of themselves are a mandate to disregard and violate the basic human rights of the refugees. The reduction of any people's status as human beings in the past has not gone well and has always resulted in significant numbers of deaths and even world wars.

We have pushed the responsibility of other countries as part of an agenda to facilitate an intake of refugees into Europe.

However, we seem to have somewhat absolved ourselves of our own responsibilities, forgetting that we have just as much an obligation as those countries we are compelling to take astronomical numbers of refugees. Whether we like it or not, we are part of a Union that chooses to support other member nations, at least in theory.

The penny still has not dropped that 11million people have been displaced from Syria, the largest displacement of people since the Second World War. Despite this, the number of Syrian refugees expected to arrive in this State this year is approximately 350, well short of the 4,000 people stated last year. This is not good enough. The deal that has been brokered between the EU and Turkey further supports the points that I have outlined above. Human rights organisations have raised what I consider to be some very valid concerns. I call on this Chamber to support the voices of these organisations, especially that of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. We need to knock our heads together and to oppose the current deal from a human rights perspective and with an approach that does not disregard the horrible situations these people are fleeing. We should also stop viewing refugees as an economic issue. We need to step up, stand up and take responsibility because the fallout here could be devastating.

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