Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Leader to facilitate a debate on our foreign affairs policy as a matter of urgency. In particular, I want a debate about the foreign affairs policy of the European Union regarding the secret prisons in Libya that are keeping migrants out of the European Union. A number of interesting articles have been published by journalists with the Outlaw Ocean Project at The New Yorkerand on NBC about the European Union funding Libya in the context of the Libyan coast guard preventing migrants coming to the European Union. I will quote an article written for The New Yorkerby Mr. Ian Urbina and published yesterday.The headline is "The Secretive Prisons That Keep Migrants Out of Europe". It continues, and I am quoting directly, "Tired of migrants arriving from Africa, the [European Union] has created a shadow immigration system that captures them before they reach its shores, and sends them to brutal Libyan detention centres run by militias." By any stretch of imagination, if that is even partly true it is absolutely awful. If we learn nothing from the events of the English Channel, where 27 people were killed last week, then as members of the European Union, as Members of this House, we have a duty to climate migrants in particular, as well as to people who are fleeing their own countries to come to the European Union to be able to have a voice in our Parliament but also at European Commission and European Parliament level. It is important that we stand up and be counted. It is equally imperative that we hold those at European Union level, whether it is the Council of Ministers, the Commission or the Parliament, accountable for the actions. I am asking respectfully that we would have a debate on this particular issue because it is worrying. I commend the journalist of the Outlaw Ocean Project, some of whom have been held in captivity and thankfully in some cases released. People have died in connection with this issue. I urge Members to read this series of articles. I will come back to this. One of the journalists working for this organisation is a past pupil of mine. I highly value his integrity and principles. As Members, we have an obligation to stand up and hold those at European Council level and Commission level accountable.