Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Labour Party supports Ireland's opt-in to the 2021-2027 asylum, migration and integration fund. We take issue, however, with some of the on-the-ground reality within the European Union towards refugees. Statistics released by the Greek Government and confirmed by the UNHCR set the total number of arrivals to Greece in 2021 at 8,000, of which roughly half arrived by sea. The Greek ministry for maritime affairs, however, reports more than 29,000 rescues by the Hellenic Coast Guard in the same period, with just 25,000 people remaining unaccounted for. The reality of the EU's hostility towards migrants and asylum seekers was brought into sharp focus when Irish citizen, Seán Binder, was arrested and charged for crimes carrying up to a 25-year sentence for joining other activists and NGO workers in rescuing African migrants who had got into difficulty in the Aegean Sea. There is a clear issue within the European Union with pushbacks and with migration and integration in practice. Each one of these figures is a human life, yet there are ministers in European governments parroting that it is positive to have low migration flows into Europe. This is true only if refugees are not fleeing; it is an overwhelming negative if refugees are seeking asylum but numbers remain low or decrease. It means that Europe is an unwelcome place that does not believe that desperate people deserve refuge. Ireland is not an outlier in this regard and we must do far more before we can accuse others of not pulling their weight.

We in the Labour Party welcome the regularisation programme for undocumented people living in Ireland announced by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, this week. We also welcome the parallel programme being opened for people in Ireland's asylum system. Regarding the regularisation scheme, however, my colleague, Senator Bacik, has been critical of the decision to discount time spent in the asylum system when calculating an applicant's time spent living in Ireland. Many people will find they are eligible for neither scheme as a result.

We in Labour see this as punishing people for being trapped in a system which this State has acknowledged is inefficient. While the scheme is welcome and is a tribute to the work of the Green Party in government, it could have been much more generous. Last year my colleague Deputy Duncan Smith questioned the Department of Justice regarding the status of refugees and asylum seekers in direct provision and raised the potential for an amnesty to give these applicants citizenship in order to alleviate many of the very serious issues they face and enable those people to find and obtain accommodation where they could live safely during this unprecedented pandemic. We cannot allow human beings to be treated as lesser people. We must completely overhaul our asylum system and we must grant a citizenship amnesty to all asylum seekers and refugees currently resident in Ireland. We must treat all people of Ireland with dignity and respect.

I support the programme announced by the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and any such move is definitely progress. Why could this program not be broadened to capture more people who are living and working in Ireland in circumstances of great uncertainty? Someone who is living here, working here, paying tax here and contributing to Irish society belongs here. They are one of us; they are us. The country of céad míle fáilte has a long way to go to live up to that ethos and it begins with conversations like this. When we see these positive moves, why do we need to ask why it is limited?

Every week I deal with people who are in these exact scenarios. They work in our communities and contribute to our society. Their kids play on our sports teams and are involved in local community groups. We are all richer for them. We must show basic reality and humanity and be sure we never tell somebody they do not belong.

I draw the Minister's attention to a piece published in the Dublin Inquirerthis week from Shamim Malekmian. Her piece highlights the ongoing failure to provide long-promised immigration detention centres. In 2021 people who were refused entry to Ireland at our borders were forced to await deportation in prisons. There is sparse information on the numbers of people who are detained in prison for this reason because data are not collected in the absence of a dedicated immigration detention facility. Such a facility was to have been opened in 2020. It is inhumane to detain people in Garda stations and prisons.

Another EU directive, the return directive to which Ireland is not a signatory, requires that immigration detention must take place in a specialised facility and that all those detained should have access to legal experts and free legal aid. This is not currently in place. People detained include those seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is not a crime. It is a fundamental human right to be respected by states. Ireland should move immediately to correct this alarming situation.

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