John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will start by addressing some of the language being used by some of my colleagues across the Chamber. There is nothing wrong with being a migrant. Certainly, we, in Ireland, should know this, but we should also know that refugees are not migrants; it is a refugee crisis about which we are talking. There is nothing wrong with seeking a better life where one can find it, but refugees are simply seeking to live. As the poet Warsan Shire wrote in her poem "Home":

you have to understand,

that no one puts their children in a boat,

unless the water is safer than the land,

no one burns their palms,

under trains,

beneath carriages,

no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck,

feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled,

means something more than a journey.

As Warsan Shire put it, refugees only leave home because it is now the mouth of a shark.

This is not a migrant crisis and to claim that it is is to minimise and trivialise the issue. Were the men and women who made their way to Ellis Island from Ireland with nothing in their stomachs but a burning desire to keep going migrants? Surely we, as a people, know what refuge means and understand the plight of those who flee an inhospitable home.

Every country has its periods of political strife, but Syria was the victim of western intervention which turned the country upside down and unrest into all-out chaos. It is a proxy war in which we are complicit because of our subservience at Shannon Airport. The international community's failure to challenge the countries which secretly and sometimes openly support the barbarism of ISIS has led us to this crisis. Still we shake the bloody hands of Saudi leaders and send condolences to their tyrannical dynasty, shamefully flying the Tricolour at half mast. We are partly responsible for the crisis and that calls for us to be clear about what it entails and to be generous in our response. So far, we have failed utterly to live up to promise to take in thousands of refugees from Syria.

Ours must be a strong voice against the EU-Turkey deal. It is a disgraceful move by the European Union which gives comfort to a nation which has done little to tackle ISIS and everything to exploit the war to wipe out the Kurds and their political movements within its borders. We must reject the deal and move towards a meaningful plan for the distribution of refugees throughout Europe. We should look on this as an opportunity to be a beacon to the world for decency, compassion and humanity. Instead, save for an honourable few, we have sat on our hands. I pay tribute to the brave crew of the LE Eithnewho have saved countless lives in the Mediterranean. Their work should be an example, but we betray their dedication by supporting a plan which places these lives back in harm's way in Turkey.

I also mention the long-running refugee crisis as a result of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. There are 5.1 million Palestinian refugees who span generations. These families include adults who have never known a life outside a refugee camp, a home or their homeland. They are situated almost entirely within the Middle East and, therefore, are at the mercy of often unstable political regimes. They are the victims of another crisis. Over 500,000 Palestinians are in camps in Syria. They are refugees from a country from which we buy arms. We must work harder to challenge the occupation of Palestine, the blockade of Gaza, the apartheid wall and all of the brutal measures used by Israel to make Palestine a place no Palestinian can truly call home. We must do this in order that they will be refugees no more and can have not just a right to return but also the ability and a reason to do so.

Ireland must be a voice and an ally for refugees in a way we were never able to be for our own.

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