Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased that the Minister has come in because I have raised some of these issues before with her in the previous Dáil. I am delighted she is here and I thank her being here.

Six Syrian migrants, including three children, died from thirst and hunger last week while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The children were aged just one, two and 12. They had drifted at sea for days before eventually being picked up by a merchant ship and taken to Sicily. More than 1,200 people have died at sea in the Mediterranean this year, adding to the tally of 25,000 deaths since 2014. Of course, that figure of 1,200 is most likely a significant underestimate of the true figure, as many human beings undertake these journeys and simply disappear without trace.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, these deaths are a direct result of the EU's decision to prioritise border security over sea rescue and says that the EU has abdicated its responsibility to ensure search and rescue in the Mediterranean and that no EU ships actively patrol anywhere near where most boats enter distress.

What is even more disturbing is the EU decision to effectively outsource search and rescue to a group of bandits and criminals who go by the name of the Libyan Coast Guard. I have raised that issue with the Minister before. The role of the Libyan Coast Guard is not to save people but, rather, to round them up, push them back and incarcerate them where they are subject to murder, extortion, torture, rape and slavery. A UN Human Rights Council investigation has found that the Libyan Coast Guard has been involved in "the commission of serious violations, abuses and crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, against the most vulnerable". If the Minister has taken the time to read the book by the award-winning Irish journalist, Sally Hayden, entitled My Fourth Time, We Drowned, she will already know all of this and, yet, the EU is happy to continue to train and fund this so-called coast guard.

The same EU governments and institutions have largely turned a blind eye to unlawful and dangerous push backs of boats to Turkey by Greece in the Aegean Sea. These push backs by the Greek authorities have resulted in 513 separate cases being filed at the European Court of Human Rights. A host of well-respected human rights NGOs have declared that Greece is involved with push backs, including the UNHCR, the committee for the prevention of torture, the International Organization of Migration, the UN special rapporteur, Mary Lawlor, who is another fine Irish woman, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, to name just a few.

Numerous harrowing videos available on social media show masked men on boats, that are clearly identifiable as Hellenic coast guard police, involved in push backs involving terror and violence. Last Monday, I directly challenged the Greek minister for migration, Notis Mitarachi, during a committee meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, that I chaired. His response was to declare all of this evidence and testimonies to be, "fake news". Who does that remind the Minister of?

Another very sinister development is the criminalisation of human rights defenders across Europe. Human rights defenders and journalists who have been involved in providing humanitarian assistance to migrants and asylum seekers are the main targets of persistent acts of harassment and intimidation. Sarah Mardini, the Syrian competitive swimmer who was hailed as a hero for saving refugees when she swam out to sea to save a boat and pulled it back to shore, is among dozens of humanitarian workers in Greece facing charges that could see them imprisoned for decades. Indeed, an Irishman, Seán Binder, is facing up to 25 years in jail if convicted of espionage and other charges for the crime of trying to save lives in the territorial waters of Greece. Human Rights Watch has likened these court actions to putting life saving on trial.

The Government is in a unique position to make a difference here. Our Government holds the presidency of the committee of ministers at the Council of Europe, which will be addressed by the Minister of State, Thomas Byrne, the week after next. Will the Government make a clear call for the EU to urgently increase search-and-rescue missions to save lives? Will it condemn the ongoing EU support for the disgraced Libyan Coast Guard? Will the Minister clearly call for an end to push backs by the Greek Government and, indeed, all governments? Will the Government condemn the criminalisation of human-rights defenders?