Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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364. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which the refugee crisis continues to be monitored at European Union and United Nations level with a view to identifying a reliable means of ensuring the safety of the victims of war and strife at all trouble spots; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19771/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The migration crisis remains a major priority for the European Union. Migration continues to be discussed at the European Council, the Foreign Affairs Council and the Justice and Home Affairs Council, as leaders seek to urgently address both the root causes of the crisis, and its terrible humanitarian consequences.

Since the crisis emerged in the spring of last year, the EU has developed a range of measures to address it, including a programme to relocate asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to member States; an EU-Africa Trust Fund to address migration from Africa; an extensive package of measures with Turkey including the Turkey Refugee Facility; EUNAVFOR MED/Operation Sophia, the naval mission to prevent loss of life at sea by disrupting the business model of people smugglers and traffickers; and high-level dialogues with countries of origin and transit.

The agreement that EU HOSG reached with Turkey in March has led to a very significant decrease in the number of migrants risking their lives crossing the Aegean.

At the UN too, the migration crisis is being addressed at the highest level. Ireland will co-facilitate a UN summit of world leaders on migration and refugees in New York on 19 September. It is hoped that leaders will be able to agree on a new set of global policy principles – the first of their kind – on refugees and migration.