Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

On 24 June, a couple of dozen people at least were victims of state murder when refugees were crushed to death against fences at the border between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla. Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch said: "Videos and photographs show bodies strewn on the ground in pools of blood, Moroccan security forces kicking and beating people, and the Spanish Guardia Civil launching teargas at men clinging to fences." The Taoiseach was offered the opportunity last week in the Dáil by Deputy Paul Murphy to condemn these killings. Not only did he spurn that opportunity, he chose instead to praise the European Union for its humanitarianism and to criticise the Deputy who had raised the human rights concerns. Historians looking at the Taoiseach's reply may well rank it as one of the most disgraceful and shameful speeches ever made in this or any other Dáil. The "UNITED List of Refugee Death" calculates that 48,647 people have died to date as a result of fortress Europe policy. Neither I nor the Socialist Party will ever support a PESCO project which aims to strengthen that racist fortress Europe policy.

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