Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. The facts I presented have come from reports and I have pictures, which I can show to the Minister. When he looks at them I believe he would say that drowning would be preferable to ending up in one of those detention centres. We agree these incidents should not be happening, but they are, so there is a need to rethink in this regard. There was horror in 2008 when a deal emerged between the former Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and Colonel Gaddafi involving a huge amount of money being paid so that Colonel Gaddafi would keep migrants in Libya so that they would not get to Italy, but the same thing is happening today. Some of the migrants have been in Libya for more than 20 years because they were oil workers. They are now in these detention centres.

How much Irish aid - which we are very good at - is going into these detention centres? The Minister of State mentioned vast sums of money, but where exactly is it going? Obviously, it is into the pockets of these criminal gangs who are abusing the situation. One of the replies we got to a parliamentary question stated that the policies are bespoke solutions to the migration problem. That is not good enough because we are fuelling so much pain, horror and, I believe, dissent, and we wonder why people are rebelling against these sorts of conditions.

With regard to the Libyan coastguard, it appears that nobody is in control so each individual coastguard has carte blancheto do what it wants. It is very important that international organisations get into these centres. That is one thing that Ireland could be very strong on at the next Foreign Affairs Council meeting. We have to speak out about these human rights abuses because that is what they are.

With respect to the Libyan situation in general, a suggestion was mooted that there could be a role for the Department's conflict resolution unit and perhaps that could be examined, but we cannot stand by and allow the conditions in those centres to continue as there are, being funded by the EU and by Ireland.

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