Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate. I will start with context and numbers. Since search and rescue, SAR, under Operation Sophia was ended in March 2019, 8,059 people have gone missing in the Mediterranean. If we take a slightly longer period, 26,377 migrants are missing in the Mediterranean as of 19 April 2014. Some 619 people are missing to date, including 58 children. According to the International Organization for Migration, IOM, quarter 1 of this year in the 21st century was the deadliest first quarter on record since 2017. There are 108 people missing so far in 2023 as of 18 April of whom 13 are women and children.

We heard a speech today from the Tánaiste who I know had to go to the Seanad, which is unfortunate, because I never like criticising in the absence of the person. He clearly told us that there is no humanitarian aspect to this. Notwithstanding the irony that I understand the word "irini" is the Greek word for peace, Operation Irini has no mandate for search and rescue vessels. To lighten that, he told us that, "It operates on the high seas and in areas that do not attract such activity." "Such activity" means drowning, starving and lost. We do not name anything like that anymore, however, because that is what is uncomfortable for us. He told us that it is "intended" that this operation will not train the Libyan Coast Guard. I am certainly not happy with the word "intended" because, clearly, that is what the operation is about. When I did my research with my office, part of this is to train the Libyan Coast Guard. Now, however, we intend not to do that. It is another little Irish solution to an Irish problem.

All the time, we are undoing what we were doing very well with proud naval people carrying out search and rescue. They did it so well and took great pride in it; they did us proud. We are undoing all of that slowly and meticulously. The worst part for me, however, is that we are doing it with the misuse of language. We are talking about peace when we have no more interest in peace. We are twisting language. Then, we look, and we ignore. We choose to talk about the triple lock, which is good, and the UN resolution, which I support, but we ignore the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, who recently called for an expansion in search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean after an increase in the number of people making the journey. The IOM Director General, Mr. António Vitorino, said that, “The persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable ... with more than 20,000 deaths." I am reliably informed from the sources I have checked that the figure is 25,000-plus. Mr. Vitorino went on to say, "I fear that these deaths have been normalized ... Delays and gaps [and obstruction] in State-led SAR [programmes] are costing human lives.”

As has been said, the EU is doing deals with third countries like Libya and Turkey, and we are outsourcing our responsibility. This is led by Mr. Josep Borrell who talks of Europe as a garden while outside is the jungle. These are the words of Borrell. I do not need to exaggerate them. I do need to repeat them to show where Europe is going. I am a proud European with connections with Germany on a long-term basis. I have to stand here and proclaim that when we dare to raise questions as to where Europe is going in terms of building up Fortress Europe, because that is what is happening. That is what I have seen happening, with more and more money going into it. We look back at our proud record and we look back to the shared language when language meant something."Mare Nostrum" meant "Our Sea"; belonging to all of us. The Italian Government, with financial support, looked to save people and, obviously, too much responsibility and burden played on Italy. We moved forward to Operation Pontus, which we took part in with Italy, a humanitarian search and rescue operation. We moved forward to 2017 when Operation Pontus became Operation Sophia. It is interesting that we use a woman's name when we are reducing our commitment to human rights and a humanitarian response under Operation Sophia, and we do that with a female name.

My time stops me. I will not support this until it is absolutely crystal clear that we will not be training the Libyan Coast Guard. Its record in this area has already been pointed out by Deputy Paul Murphy.

At the very least, we need an absolute guarantee, not to mention my other concerns.

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