Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for taking this important issue. I raise the issue of the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos in Greece. As the Minister of State is aware, a fire two weeks ago destroyed the camp and people were left destitute. All their belongings were destroyed and thousands of people are now without any kind of shelter on the island. This is a humanitarian crisis that has been festering for many years and has not been addressed by the Greek Government or the EU.

The situation is now also set against the spectre of Covid-19. An outbreak has happened and 35 people in the camp have tested positive. This is an ongoing situation and the conditions are beyond inhumane. An Irish doctor, Dr. Claire Dunne, works on the island for Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF. She paints a particularly dark and stark picture of life in the camp, and she wrote an article in theIrish Examiner last year, which is deeply troubling to read, to say the least. I refer to children's mental health from living in the camp and all that comes with that. Children and adults there have already fled from war, persecution and poverty.

Nearly 12,000 refugees are living in the camp and they have all fled from the types of situations to which I referred. Some 4,000 of the refugees are children and 400 of those are unaccompanied children. As the site was originally built for 3,000 people, it now has four times the number of people it was designed to cater for. I seek a comment from the Minister of State regarding what Ireland intends to do in response to this situation. Germany stated last week that it will take 1,500 migrants from the camp, which is welcome. I know the Minister with responsibility for equality and integration, Deputy O'Gorman, stated that four unaccompanied minors will come to the State in the weeks to come. While this is welcome, I make the point that representatives of MSF have stated that Ireland and other EU member states have simply not done anything like enough regarding this issue. It has been left to fester for a long time but, thankfully, no one was killed in the fire. Thousands of people, however, have been left destitute. What will Ireland's response be in the weeks and months to come to take in some of the children and adults from this camp?

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