Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. There has been much discussion of what this pact does and does not mean for Ireland, but first we must look at the much broader context in terms of modern migration and asylum and the deep roots of the current inequality and injustices that are leading to asylum seeking and migration. We have historical injustices and oppression. War displacement and injustice are all features of our collective history and shape the world around us today. Colonialism and the deliberate exploitation and underdevelopment of many countries across the global south have created ample conditions for war and mass displacement. In the current context, displacement is directly related to the ravages of colonialism, largely by European countries, which left many of the countries from which people now flee, robbed of their resources and their people. Not only that, but we see European powers continue to act in a colonial manner towards much of the world, whether it be through continued extraction of debt payments from former colonies, resource extraction, which we see leading to violence and mass displacement in the Congo at the moment, or through the support of repressive regimes that serve useful purposes for European powers.

Looking at all of these drivers of migration, we must be very serious and honest about the fact that our policies in the global north continue to make much of the world unlivable. It is funny that we sometimes hear the discussion across Europe is about how we can be more unwelcoming. Is the problem that we are far too welcoming? Are there ways we could make it a more miserable and awful experience? Could we have a higher death toll in the Mediterranean? Could we have more families separated? Could we put them into a more miserable, painful and brutal situation of detention? The fact is that if the choice is between unwelcoming and unlivable, people will continue to travel. The moral question for us is how we treat them.

The climate emergency is leading to displacement, famine and death. The Lancet Planetary Health journal tells us that the global north has been responsible for 92% of global emissions, with 29% from the EU, since 1850. In Malawi, one of the countries in the global south, each person produces 0.11 tonnes of carbon emissions compared with 8 tonnes for every person in Ireland.

The responsibility for the climate crisis is unequal but so are the effects. Vulnerable groups, indigenous peoples, women, children, the elderly and rural communities - about whom we hear such concern in Ireland – are at the front line of the climate crisis. Right now, 36 million people across the Horn of Africa are experiencing food insecurity because of extended droughts caused by the literal burning of our planet.

It has been suggested that the asylum policies and regime we have in terms of how we treat humanity and their right to seek asylum were only designed to deal with a trickle of some kind, and not to deal with large numbers. Surely we cannot have completely forgotten our Famine. What should they have said in America or in Liverpool then? "Sorry, we were only imagining a few people might migrate. We're sorry that thousands and millions of you are starving." Perhaps those policies did not imagine such large numbers because they did not envisage the level of cruelty that could be imposed on entire populations across the world by others.

We must look to the fact that our global economic system, intertwined with the climate crisis, is the key driver of migration and displacement. In countries that have been the subject of older as well as new forms of colonialism, where there were structural adjustment policies that intentionally undercut public services or the right to the basic necessities of life for populations, inequality becomes a driver of migration. We say we do not want economic migrants, but we are happy to impose economic policies on countries that leave them destitute and when people try to leave they are economic migrants. It is the case that the economic pressures can only go one way and that we take no responsibility for what they create.

We must also address the fact that in the 21st century, the European powers that stole the resources of many countries in previous centuries are content to tell people they are not welcome in Europe. Now we have a new form of colonialism being exerted by very large corporations, some of which may be headquartered in Ireland. We see, for example, that companies are opening private mines right across Africa. This fuels conflict and displacement at an environmental and social cost to the local population.

We are here debating the challenges of migration as if we in Ireland and Europe are the ones experiencing those challenges. In the global north we are guiding them by our policies. For context, in terms of migration and displacement, the figures have been very clear: Europe takes a very small proportion of the world's refugees and asylum seekers. Figures from the Irish Refugee Council show the EU's share of the world's refugee population has decreased. One would not think it from what we hear, but it is has decreased from 70% in 1993 to less than 20% since 2018. According to the UNHCR, approximately 74% of the world's refugees are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. Some 69% of all refugees and other persons in need of international protection live in the countries neighbouring their countries of origin. We are taking a tiny fraction of those displaced across the world, even though Europe bears a large responsibility for the drivers.

What we are really talking about is not that there is a new crisis for Europe but that there is political opportunism and exploitation of the narrative. Rich countries feel that surely they are sufficiently rich that they should not have to know about the problem or see it. We talk about third countries and the Third World.Let us be clear that there is one world. We are on one part of it. We are taking more of the resources than the others on it. We are on that one world and have responsibility for how we treat others. There is not such a thing as Europe floating in space separate from the world, with some idea that if we create hard enough policies and make enough deals with countries on the outside, we should be able to insulate ourselves from knowing what chaos is being visited on the world.

On the specifics of the pact, I completely agree that there should be separate votes on each legislative measure rather than one vote on the package in its entirety. It is undemocratic, poor practice and a disservice to all to have put this as a single bundle with a single vote. It is a failure to face responsibility for the detailed decisions. The concerns I have on the pact are not the ones I have been written to about. They are not about Ireland's share because I think Ireland should have the capacity to do more and give leadership in this area. With our history of mass migration, we should be leading in respect of these issues. I do not have concerns and I think it is ludicrous to suggest that Ireland is full in any sense. What I think Ireland needs to do better does not relate to slowing the number of migrants but is about having better policies to plan for migration. It is a disgrace that Housing for All failed to plan. Even at that time, we knew we would have increased numbers of refugees coming from Ukraine and elsewhere. There was a failure to build housing for a new migrant or refugee population into Housing for All, then it was presented as a crisis that has unexpectedly arisen rather than something that should be planned for by any proper, modern country looking at global trends. There are failures.

That is the area of the pact I have concerns with. I note that at EU level, more than 50 civil society organisations, including Amnesty International, Action Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children and the Jesuit Refugee Service, have highlighted the real and serious concerns with human rights. They have clearly said that the EU pact on migration and asylum will mirror the failed approaches of the past and worsen their consequences. There is a risk that the pact will result in an ill-functioning, costly and cruel system that falls apart in implementation and leaves critical issues unaddressed. It could normalise the arbitrary use of immigration detention, including for children and families, increase racial profiling, use crisis procedures to enable pushbacks, and return individuals to so-called safe third countries where they are in fact at risk of violence, torture and arbitrary imprisonment.

The fortress Europe mentality we have seen emerging will seemingly continue to worsen under this pact. We have to reckon with the horror of what our EU migration policy has carried out previously in all our names. Some 27,000 people seeking refuge in Europe have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since 2014. Prior to 2017, Ireland could hold its head up because our Naval Service engaged in search and rescue missions. In 2015, our Naval Service rescued 8,592 people from the Mediterranean Sea. In 2017, we entered the EU's Operation Sophia. At that time, in a debate with me, the then Minister of State at the Department of Defence, Deputy Kehoe, told the Seanad, "Transferring to Operation Sophia will result in the redeployment of Irish Naval Service vessels from primarily humanitarian search and rescue operations to primarily security and interception operations." That was a choice explicitly made to stop the work that we were all proud of with our Naval Service saving lives and to switch to the security focus that underpins so many measures in the migration pact.

By 2018, the number of people rescued fell to 1,888. By 2019, search and rescue stopped altogether. Operation IRINI, the successor to Operation Sophia, has no search and rescue mandate at all. Instead, we see the Libyan Coast Guard being notified when a ship is attempting to cross, so that if people make it to the ship, they will be returned to detention centres in Libya where they will face horrific conditions, as documented by Sally Heyden and so many others. Indeed, it seems it has given permission to some of the European coast guard services, including that in Greece, to behave with an extraordinary disregard for human rights. That agreement with the EU was formalised in the 2017 Malta declaration, which was meant to be compliant with human rights and international law. I have detail on the Libyan detention centres, which is harrowing, but because my time is constrained, I will not go into it at this point. People need only look at some of the very well documented reports to know it is unconscionable that we fund it.

The partnerships have been with many countries, including Sudan, which has received funding, including for hard borders, which we are supposedly so against in Ireland, between countries in Africa which never had borders between them because we want them to act as obstacles for us in the long term. We are happy to insert hard borders and all the tensions that come with them between other countries and third countries.

The asylum border regulation will lead to more abuses of human rights and a hardening of the policy. The mandatory asylum border policy is inhumane. The asylum procedure regulation, including the idea that people who receive a negative decision will be deported before their appeals are heard, is inhumane and could lead to people being deported into situations of real danger, in breach of their right to asylum. We note that there are many negative decisions. I recall, historically, one official who used to boast about never giving a positive decision. Many people in Ireland have had their decisions overturned on appeal because of routinely being told no at the beginning. For example, I know one person who I supported as they sought an appeal. The original decision was so badly copied and pasted that he was described as "she" throughout. The officials literally copied and pasted their decision about someone else when rejecting him initially. He only got justice at appeal stage.

On the international co-operation stream, I have highlighted reasons we should absolutely not enter agreements with countries like Libya or indeed Tunisia, which have been accused of driving migrants to the Sahara and leaving them to die. The pact would also lead to mass surveillance of people seeking asylum, specifically under the Schengen borders code reform, generalising policing checks and facilitating the practice of racial profiling within the EU, which will have negative impacts far beyond just migrants.

I finish by reminding everybody of this crucial context. According to Concern, of the ten countries with the largest number of refugees, only two are in the European Union. We are only hosting a fraction of those seeking refuge around the world. We have to remember that all of our original laws come from the principle of how humanity should treat humanity. Those of us who have the capacity should be looking for ways to make the world more liveable and to make our own country more welcoming, and indeed a country we can be prouder of rather than one that acts as a fortress.