Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

86. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he has written to the Secretary of State of the United States of America to outline Ireland's concerns in relation to the recent policy to remove children from their parents that are immigrants. [27690/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I was appalled by the images which recently emerged of immigrant children being separated from their parents at the southern US border and held in detention by the US authorities. I made my, and the Government’s, view of this policy very clear when I spoke on June 20 last week in the course of the Dáil debate on this issue. I stated in the course of that debate that the policy of separating children from their parents was inhumane and simply wrong, and I urged the US Government to immediately reverse the policy.

Ireland, in common with all Member States of the European Union, has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which establishes clear universal standards for protecting all children. The Convention states that signatories shall ensure that children shall not be separated from their parents against their will, unless such a separation is necessary for the best interests of the child.

As I stated in my contribution to the Dáil debate, I cannot see any way in which a policy of separating children from their parents in such circumstances could be said to be in the best interests of children.

In advance of the June 20^thDáil debate, I spoke that afternoon with the Chargé d’Affaires in the US Embassy in Dublin, Mr. Reece Smyth, and conveyed to him the Government’s strong views on the issue. He undertook to convey those views without delay to the relevant authorities in Washington DC.

I was pleased to see that, following the grave concerns which were expressed both domestically and internationally about the use of this policy, President Trump signed an Executive Order on the afternoon of June 20^th, Washington DC time, aimed at ending the practice of separation. I welcome this move towards a more humane practice of border protection and immigration control.

I very much hope that we have seen the last of this inhumane and unwarranted practice and the priority now must be reuniting all of the affected children with their parents, without delay.