Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on the European Union to do more to tackle the humanitarian crises which are causing thousands of people to die while attempting to try cross the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
Crowe was speaking during statements in the D\u00e1il today to mark Europe Day, which is on Saturday 9 May.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mediterranean is quickly becoming a graveyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year 3,200 men, women and children died while trying to cross the Mediterranean and reach the EU. 170,000 made the journey safely and landed in Italy in 2014. This is solely down to the help and support of the Italian navy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came from impoverished countries in Africa and Asia and were fleeing conflict, persecution, and hunger.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver 1,700 people have died in the first 4 months of this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean. That is 100 times more than this time last year. As human beings how can we turn aside and ignore this huge humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis summer hundreds of thousands of tourists will be flying to the beaches of the Mediterranean to enjoy themselves. At the same time hundreds of thousands of adults and children will be placed in overcrowded and unsafe rafts, dinghies, and boats, on a mission to reach the EU alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to ensure that thousands more don\u2019t drown.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have heard that EU Governments have planned to triple Triton\u2019s mission budget to \u20ac9 million per month and provide some more ships.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plans for more money and boats have yet to be realised.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust last weekend 6,770 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Italian navy is still conducting search and rescue missions, while the EU\u2019s Triton mission is primarily about patrolling the EU\u2019s borders. This is blatantly wrong and needs to be changed. It doesn\u2019t matter how much money is pumped into the Triton mission, Europe needs to focus on active search and rescue mandate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome that the Minister for Defence is planning on sending the L\u00c9 Eithne to region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need to examine other options and increase the amount of refugees that Ireland is currently accepting. Ireland\u2019s L\u00c9 Eithne can\u2019t rescue migrants and just drop them off in Malta and Italy and forget about them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere needs to be an EU focus on increasing our collective support and help to southern European countries who are on the frontline, and one of those initiatives must be to increase our refugee quota.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world is experiencing an unprecedented amount of simultaneous humanitarian crises and the UN estimates that 50 million people are currently displaced. Many are fleeing war and famine and are seeking safety and a new beginning for their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland can play its part on the frontline, but we also need to do more at home.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Se\u00e1n Crowe TD, has called on the European Union to do more to tackle the humanitarian crises which are causing thousands of people to die while attempting to try cross the Mediterranean. Crowe was speaking during statements in the D\u00e1il today to mark Europe Day, which is on Saturday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,93,180,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eu","category-immigration","category-mediterranean","category-migration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2168,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}