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

It is 35 years this November since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Where are we 35 years on? There are 1,800 km of walls and fences built or being built on Europe's borders, the equivalent of 12 Berlin Walls. In Hungary, the European Union helped to build a steel fence, ringed with barbed wire between the border of Hungary, Croatia and Serbia, giving €22 million in funding. In Poland, there are 180 km of barbed wire separating the country from Belarus. The police force established to maintain this frontier, Frontex, had a €6 million budget in the year 2005, which will swell by the year 2027 to €900 million. The number of staff will increase from 1,400 to more than 10,000. This is fortress Europe.

The UNITED List of Refugee Deaths calculates that between the years 1993 and 2024, there have been 60,620 deaths as a result of fortress Europe, with more than 3,000 people dying in the Mediterranean Sea alone last year. I am opposed to the EU migration and asylum pact because it strengthens fortress Europe. Those who are deemed on the initial check to be unlikely to be granted protection will not be allowed to enter a state and will be accommodated at a designated location until their application is ruled on. Dr. Ciara Smyth from National University of Ireland, Galway, says that it kind of creates an excised grey zone where the applicability of fundamental rights is unclear. That is precisely the reason for it. Refugees will be forced to stay in, or be sent to, dangerous so-called safe third countries. Already, these externalisation policies have led to migrants being abused in Tunisia and tortured in Libya.

Shorter decision times will make it extremely difficult for those seeking protection to access legal aid. Immigration lawyer, Mr. Cathal Malone, says the stakes are incredibly high and by artificially shortening those timeframes to such a degree, we are in real danger of putting people into situations in which they may be tortured or killed. I am reminded of the comments of Mahatma Gandhi when he arrived at Southampton in England in the early 1930s. He was asked by a reporter what he thought of British civilisation. He replied that he thought it would be a very good idea. His words came to mind when I read that this agreement will mean those without proper documentation will be registered on the Eurodac database which will include mandatory fingerprinting and facial scanning on all irregular migrants over the age of six.

Who has been campaigning for these policies? It is the European far right. Who is implementing these policies now? It is those who self-describe as the European centre right and, shamefully, those who self-describe as the European centre left. If the centre is implementing this programme, it is what Tarek Ali correctly described as the extreme centre. It is to the particular shame that the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the sister group of the Labour Party, is signing up to this pact.

Of course, some will wonder whether, if the restrictions were not so tight, many people would come to Europe and there would be an even greater crisis in services, social services, housing and so forth. That need not be the case if the wealth that exists in Europe were used for the benefit of all in society instead of being controlled by a small minority and a number of big corporations. The Fortune 500 reckons that the top 500 companies have a total revenue of $13.9 trillion, which is three and a half times greater than the GDP of Germany. European big business excess profits were worth €310 billion in 2022 according to the Left group in the European Parliament. Of the population of Europe, 10% controls 67% of the wealth. The poorest 50% controls a mere 1.2% of the wealth according to Credit Suisse. If there were real wealth taxes on that wealth and nationalisation of companies and if that wealth was then put to the benefit of society, we could certainly accommodate more asylum seekers and refugees and have a better life for all in this continent of ours.

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