Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this timely and important debate. The extent of the humanitarian crisis in the regions we are speaking about is alarming. I wish to recognise the commitment of the Minister of State to this area. His aptitude for the job is well known and recognised and I commend him on the efforts he has made to try to ensure the humanitarian aid programme and Irish Aid secure funding to be able to make a contribution to deal with the crisis. The extent of the crisis is beyond our capacity to make an enormous impact on it, but nevertheless, we are playing our part.

We should also compliment the various aid agencies active in these areas, some of which have appeared before Oireachtas committees. Two former Ministers of State, Peter Power and Barry Andrews, now lead two of those organisations and they appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and outlined the extent of the challenges they face. They also gave us a flavour of the good work they are doing in this area. They and the Government, through the Minister of State and the Department of Foreign Affairs, are certainly making a constructive and valuable contribution.

The Central African Republic has seen a rapid deployment by the African Union of the international support mission. It is right to recognise and acknowledge that Catherine Ashton has asked at the European Council for greater European involvement in the Central African Republic. The Council has given approval for a possible new military operation and has approved the related crisis management concept. The initiative to have a donors' conference has proved beneficial and approximately €366 million has been pledged for humanitarian aid to the Central African Republic. In the past, we have seen pledges from various countries, but they do not always come to fruition. Promises are made, but are not always followed through on. It is important that the commitments made in this region are met.

We should note that the UN Security Council approved the planned deployment of European troops to the Central African Republic, in a bid to stop violence between Christians and Muslims. Indeed, the country's president has called for a UN peacekeeping force. Almost 1 million people, a quarter of the population, has been displaced by fighting. This has come about since the mostly Muslim Seleka rebel group seized power in March of last year in what is a majority Christian country. At least 2,000 people have been killed. In many ways, this conflict replicates some of the routes of crisis across that region. I am told by many Muslim people that much of the conflict being perpetrated in the purported pursuit of Islam is not recognised by or finds no foundation in the Koran. There is a need for moderate Muslims to be more vociferous in asking to be heard more and for them to play a greater part in ensuring that fundamentalists and extremists do not carry their agenda without any verbal opposition from within their own communities. I know there are risks to doing this, but this should be encouraged.

The United Nations has warned that this conflict, in a former French colony, could spiral into genocide. We have seen and read of examples of this in the past in some African states. This must be avoided. France has sent 1,600 troops to the Central African Republic to assist 5,000 African Union peacekeepers. The European Union has agreed to send approximately 500 troops. This is very small in proportion to the population of Europe and I believe there is a far greater potential for us to assist in this area. This is something we need to consider. Our neutrality policy needs to be examined to ensure that Europe, which is a highly respected voice on the global stage, is equipped to be able to give greater and more tangible assistance in these crisis areas.

The hostilities in South Sudan have resulted in suffering and the loss of human life and there have been large scale human rights violations. The European Union has called on all parties to agree an immediate cessation to hostilities and violence. The Minister of State has pointed out that South Sudan got its independence in 2011. An overwhelming majority of the Sudanese voted in favour of seceding to become Africa's first new country since Eritrea split from Ethiopia in 1993. However, there are various disputes with Khartoum and rivalries within the government party. The lack of economic development also clouds South Sudan's immediate future.

There is significant oil wealth in South Sudan, yet it is one of Africa's least developed countries. We talk about good and ethical governance and it is essential that the resources of the state are applied in the interest of all the people of the country. This is a principle we would strongly adhere to and call for, but unfortunately, all too frequently in countries in Africa and the Middle East this does not happen to the extent it should. There are major rows over border regions, some of which are rooted in disputes over land. There is also a religious undertone to the conflict, such as in the Nuba Mountains, where a largely Christian community and government forces are in conflict. Some 100,000 people have been displaced since independence.

This displacement is a feature of many of these conflicts and it is only when one visits these countries, as the Minister of State has seen in his visits to the Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere, that one sees the effects displacement has on individuals and families and, particularly, on children. Syria is a prime example of this. I am glad to see the Inter-Parliamentary Union, IPU, has called for the immediate, unhampered access to civilian and refugee populations in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. The recent deaths of starving Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk camp on the edge of Damascus are the latest civilian casualties of a conflict that has left whole communities besieged. These deaths highlight the need for aid and access to all parts of the country.

The UN has estimated that 9.3 million Syrians in the country and 2 million outside of it are in urgent need of aid. Humanitarian agencies are currently feeding more than 3.8 million people in Syria, but many populations cannot be reached because of the intricate dynamics of the conflict. The IPU is urging the international community to multiply its efforts to end the war, to negotiate a political settlement and to find an immediate and effective solution to the humanitarian crisis. We would all echo those sentiments. The initiative on the peace process is one we hope will yield a beneficial result. Last June when I was in Jordan and visited a number of the refugee camps there, I was struck by the fact that all the people we met said they reckoned the conflict and the war in Syria would last at least another decade. That is an appalling vista. Every effort that can be made should be made to try to secure peace, and a ceasefire in the first instance.

At that camp this time last year, I recall the Minister of State telling me there were 15,000 people there. Today, there are over 150,000 refugees there. There is no law and order in the camp with women used for prostitution and other means to gain revenues within the camp. The Jordanian police have no access to securing the camp. Among the countries in the region, both Lebanon and Jordan are sharing too great a burden of this conflict without the necessary international supports essential for them to deal with the crisis and maintain their own stability. Both countries are susceptible to ethnic and other political conflicts. While both are stable now, contamination from Syria could disturb this balance.

I urge the Minister of State to intensify his efforts at getting other EU member states, as well as the EU itself, to play an even greater role in these conflict areas.