Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I thank the Cathaoirleach and Leader for having this debate. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. It is well documented that these conflicts have created their own disastrous and wide-ranging humanitarian crises. Debates in this House are not really listened to, never mind a debate on a matter as important as this, so how do we create greater awareness of what is happening in the world and these humanitarian crises? Is there a need for greater education in schools? What can we do through the media? It is heartbreaking not to see heightened awareness when so much conflict and so many humanitarian crises occur, and that they are not part of the daily discourse of people. For many people it is white noise. The conflict in Syria will continue for another decade and we cannot ignore it. We need greater awareness.

Thousands of people have been killed in fighting in the Central African Republic, and approximately 1 million people, which is a quarter of the population, have been displaced. It has taken on a very worrying sectarian trend, with the UN warning of a high risk of the violence spiralling into genocide. It is worth noting that before recent fighting broke out the Central African Republic was one of the poorest countries in the world and was very troubled socioeconomically, despite being rich in gold, diamonds and uranium reserves. These have largely been extracted and exploited by Western-based multinational corporations. This has led many to view violence as more to do with political control over access to natural resource wealth, and religious tensions are being stoked by foreign meddling to facilitate this. For a long time Muslims and Christians have lived in peace in the area, but there is no denying the scale of violence and depth of the crisis.

To the east of the Central African Republic lies the world's youngest country, namely, South Sudan, which is also facing a humanitarian crisis. Tensions have been rapidly increasing since splits in the ruling government party led to outbreaks of violence and rebellion. As the Minister of State said, it is the worst violence since independence was won in 2011 and has killed thousands of civilians and driven more than 500,000 people from their homes. The two sides have agreed to meet in Ethiopia for peace talks, but each side accuses the other of continuing violence, and discussions have been suspended until 7 February . There are deep ethnic, political and personal grievances which will be hard to overcome when the talks finally restart. South Sudan holds the third largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria but it remains one of the continent's least developed countries. We must keep this to the front of our minds.

The Syrian conflict has been in the news and discussed heavily here today. It is a monumental humanitarian crisis. The United Nations has described the situation as the greatest humanitarian crisis in modern history, with millions of people in need of urgent assistance. It is welcome to see some dialogue between opposition rebel groups and the Syrian government at the Geneva talks.

I do not know how likely it is that a major breakthrough will be made at the talks that will resolve the conflict. There is a possibility that vital humanitarian corridors can be opened to provide assistance to the vulnerable besieged citizens in the towns and cities across the country.

The ongoing destruction has created over 2.3 million external refugees. That number refers to refugees who have registered with the UNHCR. It does not include people who have been internally displaced or Palestinian refugees because the latter are under the remit of the UNRWA programme. The international community has an obligation to help these external refugees by supporting the neighbouring countries that host them, especially countries where a refugee influx has the greatest potential for causing conflict. As well as funding for humanitarian needs, there should be a longer-term and more comprehensive approach adopted to strengthen the ability of host countries to accommodate refugees from the Syrian conflict. The measure would help to prevent a steep rise in social and political tensions. For example, the UNHCR has estimated that the total number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has reached 1 million which amounts to a quarter of the Lebanese population. We are witnessing not just a humanitarian crisis in these war-torn and impoverished countries but a spilling over of conflict and humanitarian crises into neighbouring countries. I welcome the Government's commitment, so far, in terms of supporting humanitarian programmes in the Central African Republic, south Sudan and Syria and thank the Minister for his efforts in that regard.

At present the EU has agreed to accept 30,000 Syrian refugees from Lebanon under the UNHCR refugee settlement programme. I understand the Government will only accept 90 of the refugees but the Minister of State will correct me if I am wrong about the figure or if there are errors in what I say. Ireland remains the only country in the EU with no single unified system of refugee application which has led to huge backlogs and asylum seekers have ended up in direct provision facilities. It would be remiss of me not to mention the direct provision system and I urge that it is reassessed.

I shall finish my contribution by raising another issue. I welcome all of the concern expressed about the humanitarian crises in these countries. I shall take this opportunity to call on us all to remember the peace and human rights activist, Ms Margaretta D'Arcy. She has been incarcerated in Limerick jail for protesting against the illegal use of Shannon Airport by foreign military organisations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It must be noted that the actions of those military organisations assisted in creating an ongoing humanitarian crises in both countries.

I ask the Minister of State to comment on how we can raise awareness which is an important issue. We are fortunate to be able to debate these issues with him here and at committees. We have also been fortunate to have a lot of prominent witnesses attend, for example, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade. I know that people in Ireland have a lot of problems. I would like to know how we can heighten awareness of these matters among the public. How do we create a public awareness of what takes place in the world away from our doorstep?