Are the European Union and Ireland losing sight of both law and morality? Confronted with thousands of unaccompanied children – with rights under European and national law -– member states have shown themselves to be morally deficient and in breach of law.
Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union sets as an objective the promotion and the protection of the rights of the child. The EU’s charter of fundamental rights has the same legal value as the treaties which form the EU.
Article 24 of the charter recognises children as independent and autonomous holders of rights. The child’s best interests must be the primary consideration in all actions relating to children by public and private institutions.
It is fundamental to ensure that any child needing urgent protection receives it, regardless of immigration status, citizenship or background. Against this legal and moral framework Europe’s gross and callous failure of thousands of unaccompanied children erodes the union’s legitimacy as citizens see clearly what is occurring in their name.
This will have serious consequences for any prospect of a successful “post-Brexit” relaunch of the EU. A new course for how the most vulnerable are treated is urgent for both Ireland and the EU.
Ireland has taken a first significant step to restore credibility with the cross-party EU migration crisis motion unanimously approved in Dáil Éireann on November 10th last. This was in response to advocacy by many civil-society organisations, including a vigil outside Leinster House.
The Methodist Church in Ireland states that a “moral stain is masking the European Union and is now colouring Ireland as well”.
Most shameful day
The most shameful day of my life occurred on October 24th when, at a meeting of the churches with the European Commission in Brussels on the refugee crisis, a slide was put up which showed Ireland had taken one unaccompanied child – even as the chaos of Calais was unfolding before all our eyes.
In Greece on October 19th there were 1,604 unaccompanied children on the waiting list for a reception place, 359 of whom were in detention due to lack of reception capacity. Ireland had undertaken to receive some of these children from Greece but has failed to do so to date.
The Methodist Church called for Ireland to show moral leadership within the EU by immediately taking 200 unaccompanied children. If we do so we can, with credibility, call for other member states to rescue these children and place them appropriately. We know the situation is complex but complexity is no excuse for inactivity.
It is encouraging that the Government has now committed “to act now to ensure the relocation to Ireland by 1 st May, 2017, of 200 of these unaccompanied children”.
We have heard the buck-passing among all the authorities and agencies about why the response has been so appalling to date. The truth to be feared is that Ireland has no intention of doing any more than the other member states – which sets the bar unacceptably low and at a callous level.
An EU of 500 million of the wealthiest states in the world which cannot safeguard children in danger is one that citizens will consider a failure. The unfounded fears of refugees that has been fostered in the right-wing media must be combatted by the truth.
Today only 4 per cent of the EU’s total population is composed of third-country non-EU nationals. Lebanon, a tiny country, has more migrants and refugees than the whole of the EU. The truth is that Fortress Europe has been created while thousands drown in the Mediterranean as they try desperately to reach safety. Many who reach Europe are met by barbed wire and tear gas at our borders.
Unaccompanied children are held in containers or detention and fall into human trafficking and deadly danger.
Migration agency
The Methodist Church in Ireland calls on the Government to establish a new migration and refugee agency with the necessary powers and resources to administer Ireland’s reception and integration of substantial numbers of refugees, including unaccompanied children.
Global migration and the refugee crisis is a long-term phenomenon and our current ad-hoc organisational arrangements are clearly failing abysmally. This agency would begin to restore fully Ireland’s moral authority and allow Ireland to lead within the EU to encourage other member states to live up to their legal and moral responsibilities.
It is a welcome start that the Dáil motion of November 10th commits the Government “to make available the necessary resources and expertise to Tusla, all relevant agencies and non-governmental organisations” for these vulnerable children.
However, a coherent national programme for refugees and migrants requires a single responsible agency tasked to ensure our current EU commitments to 4,000 persons seeking refuge is achieved.
Many Irish organisations and civil society generally ardently desire Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Government to offer some thousands of refugees a safe and permanent home in Ireland over the coming years.
Let us stand up for our values and who we are – a warm, hospitable, welcoming people who show love and charity to our neighbours in their grave and urgent need. If we do, we will be indeed, as the Dáil motion of November 10th states, “a society of equality, tolerance and diversity”.
Dr Fergus O'Ferrall is lay leader of the Methodist Church in Ireland and a governor of The Irish Times