Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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358. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 627 of 14 April 2016 (details supplied), the other efforts he and his European Union counterparts are undertaking to address the migrant crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8024/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The migration crisis remains at the top of the EU agenda and has been for the past year. The focus of activity in recent months has been Turkey, since most migrants and refugees arriving in the EU since early 2015 have travelled via Turkey. However, the European Union’s efforts to resolve the migration crisis have gone well beyond Turkey, involving countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Sahel as well as a number of initiatives designed to address the root causes of migration, and to help the plight of refugees. Late last year there were two important joint ministerial conferences initiated by the EU focusing on migration: the first in October on the Western Balkans route and the second addressing migration from Africa (Valletta) in November 2015. The Valletta Summit established a Trust Fund for addressing the root causes of migration in Africa, with €1.8bn from the European Development Fund and additional bilateral contributions. Ireland is contributing €3m to this Trust Fund.

More recently, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini has been conducting a series of high level dialogues with a number of countries of origin and transit, including Ethiopia, Sudan and Nigeria. These have focused largely on readmission and return, and work on a number of tailor-made incentive packages continues.

Last June, the Foreign Affairs Council launched EUNAVFOR Med, a naval operation to disrupt the activities of people smugglers in the Mediterranean. Over the last six months, the operation has saved an estimated 13,000 lives and arrested 68 smugglers. Irish naval vessels alone have rescued over 8,500 people and plans are well advanced to send another vessel to continue that work later this year.

Earlier this month the European Parliament approved a Commission proposal to re-allocate €300 million from within the EU’s Security and Citizenship budget in 2016 to support and complement Member States’ efforts to address the immediate needs of refugees and migrants. At the conference Supporting Syria and the Region which was held in London on 4 February, the EU and the Member States pledged over €3 billion for the year 2016.

When all these strands are taken into consideration, it is clear that the EU has been very active and remains active in attempting to address the enormous humanitarian challenges posed my mass migration. Nor should it be forgotten that EU member states last year together took in more than a million migrants.