Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 4, to delete lines 39 and 40 and substitute the following:"(2) This Act shall come into operation no later than three months after the date of its passing.".

I thank Senators who supported the Bill to allow it to proceed to Report Stage. The amendment provides that the Act will come into operation not later than three months after the date of its passing. I have been asked why the amendment is necessary and why a Bill on family reunification is urgent and necessary. We are in the midst of the biggest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. More than 65.5 million human beings have been forcibly displaced as a result of violent conflict, persecution and disaster. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, this is the highest number ever recorded. There are an estimated 2.25 million refugees, more than half of whom are children. Enormous human tragedies are taking place every day, including in eastern Ghouta. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Simon Coveney, stated not half an hour ago that he could not watch reports from eastern Ghouta on television, especially what is happening to women and children there. In Yemen, a proxy war is raging and cholera is rampant and we have the tragedy of the Rohingya people who have been displaced from Myanmar. People are living in hell in other places too, far from our awareness and knowledge.

The scale of displacement is vast and almost unimaginable in our stable and comfortable lives. Only a tiny proportion of the world's refugees are able to use safe and legal mechanisms to access asylum or international protection. In 2015, more than 1 million people risked their lives to reach Europe by sea, many on dangerously inadequate boats. More than 4,500 people went missing and are feared drowned. Recorded testimonies of more than 250 people travelling to Europe via Libya detailed sexual violence, torture, denial of food and deprivation of medical care.

While the routes to safety taken by refugees may be diverse, a common thread running through their experiences is the breakdown of the family unit. The destruction of the family unit is an almost universal consequence of refugee experiences according to Brooke Wilmsen who did a study of family separation in the refugee context. When a person reaches safety, finding and reuniting with loved ones is often the priority, as was captured in the recently published Oxfam study, Safe But Not Settled. The human misery, sundered families and scale of the crisis demonstrate the imperative on Ireland, as implied in my amendment, to urgently play its part, now more than ever.

Sadly, since the inception of this legislation, the Government has opposed it at every turn. Two successive Ministers have not listened and have instead sought to block the Bill and even mislead. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that, under law, the Government must move forward with the Bill within three months of legislative approval. I ask Senators to show their support for the amendment, which simply seeks to ensure that the International Protection (Family Unification) (Amendment) Bill 2017 is brought into legal effect three months after its legislative approval to ensure a timely response to refugees and family members anxiously wishing to reunite and mend families that have been broken up by cruel circumstances.