Paul Murphy: 'Fortress Europe' Fuels Human Trafficking

Thanks, Chair. Obviously, any measure which tackles human trafficking is welcome. We do have to look behind the lofty rhetoric of the European Union to see the reality of a more complicated situation and a responsibility of the European Union for its Fortress Europe policies, supported by governments right across Europe. We have to look at not only that broader EU migration policy, but also at the wider geopolitical conflicts, to climate chaos, to war, and the ongoing dehumanisation of refugees and others seeking shelter and asylum. The ongoing collusion of this state and other EU states with brutal totalitarian regimes, like in Libya, that have established inhuman camps and clearance centres at the fringes of EU borders, as part of a conscious policy of the so-called externalisation of EU borders. They are the kind of policies that lead to desperate people seeking to come here and facilitate the operation of horrific criminal gangs, human traffickers and so on. A few points on the specifics of the directives itself is that one of the key things to do if we are tackling the roots of human trafficking is to afford real protection and immunity to those who are victims of that human trafficking. According to an ESRI report, this year, between 2015 and 2020, 356 people were identified by the Gardaí as victims of trafficking. Almost 60 per cent were non-EU citizens. Of course, the true figures are likely to be significantly higher. But it is a fact that victims, to quote from the ESRI report, victims who are also applicants for international protection have reduced access to social welfare and the labour market. The temporary nature of the residents' permission was identified as a source of uncertainty and insecurity. IPAS centres were also seen as inappropriate places for victims of human trafficking. So we need supports that are not conditional for non-EU nationals, but are unconditional, that are not dependent on their cooperation with prosecutions. We need to change this and ensure that you have unconditional assistance and residence permits for all victims. The non-punishment provision in Article 8 is mostly not implemented. The directive needs to be stronger and Irish law needs to be explicit that victims are not prosecuted or punished for crimes that they have been compelled to commit as a consequence of their being trafficked. The reality at the moment across the European Union is that existing non-punishment provisions are weak and rarely fully implemented. The supports available to victims need to be extended beyond the period during which legal proceedings may be taking place. The trauma and difficulty that victims face does not end, obviously, when court or legal processes end. To look at the broader picture, the policy of Fortress Europe, the policy of drawing up the drawbridge, punishing those who are fleeing war, persecution and climate chaos, with a consequence of 10 to 1,000 drowned in the Mediterranean over the past decade. We can look aghast at our UK neighbours and the policies pursued there, but the reality is that the entire EU policy on migration and refugees feeds the human trafficking business. There was a UN report at the end of March which represented a condemnation of both the European Union and every single government in it. It showed that governments are guilty of knowingly casting aside thousands of human beings, fleeing war. In Libya, for example, to quote, they found there are grounds to believe a wide array of war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by state security forces and armed militia groups, documented numerous cases of arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance. It goes on, these are the state forces and militias which the European Union and this state support and collude with. We pay for them, the EU funds these camps, they are found in this UN report to be conducting wholesale torture, rape, slavery, executions and overseeing a system of internment and torture of over 600,000 migrants seeking our help. It was estimated that last year, over 82,000 refugees and migrants were returned to Libya by the European Union under these cooperation deals which operate. And that's, you have cooperation deals between the European Union and Libya, but then also between the Libyan authorities and militias. That is a historical crime, a crime against humanity on a grand scale, it reveals the truth behind the fantasy of the European Union as some liberal democratic place of human rights. In the words of one migrant interviewed, our concern is not drowning in the water, our concern is going back to the camp where we will be tortured by the guards. This is what feeds human trafficking and until we deal with the reasons that people flee, we will continue to be feeding human traffickers. Thank you.