Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, if migrants are transferred from an Irish naval vessel to another vessel, they are then transferred to safety on the Italian coastline. To say they are brought back to Libya is totally untrue. That is not happening. Operation Sophia has been effective to date. The main focus of the mission is security and interception operations to disrupt the operations of criminal organisations engaged in human smuggling and trafficking, organisations which prey on vulnerable people and which are exacerbating the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean. The number of migrants coming through the central Mediterranean route has fallen and action against illegal arms trafficking is ongoing.

The recent statistics from the UN migration agency, the International Organization for Migration, indicate that 10,949 migrants and refugees have entered Europe by sea during the first nine weeks of 2018. This compares to 20,051 arrivals across the region during the same period in 2017. In 2016 the corresponding figure was almost 135,000. Up to 7 March this year there have been 442 reported migrant deaths in the Mediterranean compared to 521 in 2017. Thanks to all of the people involved and the efforts they are making the number of migrants in official detention centres has fallen from an estimated 20,000 people in October 2017 to 4,000 in March 2018. There has been a significant fall in the number of migrants in these detention centres.

This has been raised at the highest level. It has been raised by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. It has been raised by the Taoiseach at EU Council level. I understand the Minister for State, Deputy Helen McEntee, has also raised this issue. I know that both she and the Taoiseach have raised that issue here in the Dáil and with their EU counterparts.

See this speech in context