Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, it is not EU policy to send refugees and migrants who have been rescued in the Mediterranean back to Libya. We do not regard that as safe. There was an understanding with the Libyan coastguard before the recent violence broke out in Tripoli but since then the functioning of Libya as a state, and the ability of it to protect migrants in camps, has been fundamentally undermined. The case the Deputy referred to earlier to which I responded is a fairly graphic example of that. There are concerns about physical and sexual abuse of both adults and children in many of those camps. It is appalling.

I do not believe that the EU's response in relation to what is now left of Operation Sophia is good enough. That we no longer have EU ships in the Mediterranean focused on search and rescue is not good enough but we could not get agreement on the continuation of Operation Sophia as was, mainly because we could not get agreement around disembarkation and the sharing of the burden in relation to refugees and asylum seekers.

We have on a number of occasions in recent months quietly accepted small numbers of refugees-----

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