Refugee Med crisis indictment of international community and EU, says Gerry Adams

THE crew of the Naval Service vessel LÉ Niamh – first on the scene after a makeshift boat packed with more than 700 refugees tragically capsized in the Mediterranean with the loss of 200 lives – has been praised by Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams as “a credit to our country”.

But the Louth TD also criticised the news that more Direct Provision Centres will be opened by the Government even though they have been deemed by an Oireachtas committee as not fit for purpose.

“So far in 2015, more than 2,000 people have already died while trying to cross the Mediterranean in order to seek refuge, and 3,279 died last year. This is a huge humanitarian and refugee crisis that Europe has to adequately tackle,” Gerry Adams said.

“This whole humanitarian disaster is an indictment of the international community and the European Union. These people are leaving their countries because of turmoil – a lot of that turmoil was created by interventions by Western powers, so we need to see the European Union and our Government doing more.”

He said that he is distressed at the news that more Direct Provision Centres will be opened here.

“I’ve been in these centres. There’s one of them in my constituency. They are like internment centres. These folks are being interned. And children are being reared in them. People have been in them for 12, 14 years.

“It’s good that we’re taking in some of the refugees and asylum seekers, but to do what – to stick them in a hostel or some centre which the Government itself said is unacceptable because of the human rights violations.”

He pointed out that the recent report from the Oireachtas Petitions Committee, headed by Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, has said – and the minister himself responsible, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, has concurred – that these Direct Provision centres are not fit for purpose.

In April, Minister of State with responsibility for New Communities, Culture and Equality Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said on the 15th anniversary of direct provision that it was not an occasion to be proud of and marked a regrettable period in Irish history.

Gerry Adams said on Thursday after news of yet another tragedy off the coast of Libya:

“We need to be treating refugees with the dignity they deserve.

“The entire situation is devastating.

“Coffin ships have not been consigned to history. We as a people only one hundred years ago went through the very same thing in terms of the deaths of our folks across the Atlantic.

“We should be using all of our strength as a small island nation with our history to prevent what is happening and to ensure that the EU and the international community take immediate and effective humanitarian action.”