Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputies Carthy and Andrews. It was suggested by the European Commission that the next EU budget should have €6.5 billion for military spending. Many of us in this House, as we heard in earlier contributions, oppose this direction. The increased militarisation of the EU and the moves to create a standing army have to be opposed. It is a negative development that undermines Irish neutrality and is the wrong direction for the EU to go. Ireland should remove itself immediately from these plans and should not provide one cent of Irish taxpayers' hard-earned money to PESCO and other EU military projects.

The European Council also discussed the situation in Syria and released a declaration on the fighting in Idlib. We all agree that we have to see an end to the conflict in Syria and a political solution to the crisis through an inclusive peace process for the Syrian people without foreign interference. Disappointingly, the EU's declaration did not mention the fact that Turkey has illegally moved its forces into the region. There was no mention of this in the speeches of the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste. Since the beginning of hostilities, Turkey has repeatedly backed radical jihadist groups in the conflict and has provided assistance to them, which has drawn out the war. It has also attacked the YPG and other Kurdish forces which successfully repelled ISIS and other extreme jihadist groups. Turkey has accused the EU of betrayal for failing to uphold an agreement on Syrian refugees.

Sinn Féin opposed the EU-Turkey deal because it involved transferring billions of EU money to Erdoğan's autocratic regime in return for it forcibly stopping refugees seeking asylum. The deal clearly violated international law and the human rights of Syrian refugees. It gave additional powers to President Erdoğan and has allowed him to use refugees as pawns as he attempts to extract concessions from his NATO allies. In response to recent military defeats in Syria, Erdoğan is doing just this. This has led to appalling scenes and clashes on Greek islands. Greece and Italy were already struggling to process and take care of refugees. Moria refugee camp in Lesbos is a former detention centre with capacity for fewer than 3,000 people. The camp currently has more than 20,000 inhabitants, almost half of whom are children. One child died on Monday after a boat carrying 48 people capsized in Greek waters south of Lesbos. No child should drown in European waters while fleeing violence and seeking safety.

We know that refugees and those who provide assistance to them, for example, volunteer doctors, have been attacked. Inflammatory and militarist language from EU and national policymakers contributes to the risk of violence against people seeking protection and against the organisations and individuals who provide support and show solidarity. Ireland and other EU member states need to mount a collective emergency response and provide humanitarian assistance and humane reception conditions and access to asylum processes for people arriving. This should be through a coalition of all of the countries willing to work together to support border countries. There is clearly no need to wait for those unwilling to assist. This is the message I want to send today.

I appeal to Deputies who are interested in what is happening in that part of the world to read the article in the Irish Examinerby Caoimhe Butterly. She writes about harrowing scenes and the desperation of people in the camp. She also writes about the sound of children coughing echoing throughout the camp at night. I appeal to people to read the article, after which they might have a different perspective on what is happening to refugees in Europe.

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