Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Some 56 Irish men and women have been sent on the LÉ Niamhto take part in Operation Sophia, along with the disgraced Libyan coastguard. This coastguard's purpose is really to wage war on refugees trying to get to Europe. Let us be clear about this. It is not correct to call the Libyan coastguard by that name. Much of it is made up of militias which have appointed themselves to patrol the seas. They have created their own crests, dreamt up their own military ranks and called themselves the Libyan coastguard before setting off for the Mediterranean. Working with militias dressed up as coastguards to push back migrants to rape and torture in Libya, the fact of which is well known, is something that we have a problem with. There are strong documented suspicions that the so-called coastguard is itself bound up in the business operations of traffickers and smugglers that Operation Sophia has, we are told, been set up to combat. One could not make this stuff up. The Defence Forces of Ireland, a neutral country, is participating in such an alliance. This will come back to haunt us.

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