'Dignity and compassion' should be crucial to immigration system, says MEP candidate
Michael Bolton
An Independent MEP candidate for Midlands North-West has labelled the EU response to migration as all wrong.
Saoirse McHugh, who ran in the 2019 European elections and the 2020 General Election, criticised immigration policies in the Government and the European Union.
Speaking to Breakingnews.ie, Ms McHugh criticised the EU migration pact, and said she would have voted against it as it makes migration more dangerous in Europe.
"I thought it was so cruel, it was just a further tightening and making migration into the EU more dangerous. It is so wrong, and has been condemned by so many different human rights groups.
"This definitely has the potential to force more people into even more dangerous routes. People are always going to move, people always have moved, people are always going to move.
"The main crisis in EU migration is the billions we the EU is spending giving to criminal gangs to run these camps in third countries, where people are subjected to torture, extortion, people die in them all the time.
"People are forced from their home for a million different reasons, including poverty, including war, including climate breakdown. Poverty, war and climate breakdown are all things the EU has a really big hand in. We could address them instead of further making getting into Europe more difficult.
"The EU policies when it comes to migration is all wrong."
Ms McHugh's comments come after a week in which immigration has dominated the headlines in Ireland, which has led to a diplomatic spat with the UK.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee claimed some of this upsurge was due to people avoiding the UK over the Rwanda deportation policy.
Commenting on the Government's immigration policy, Ms McHugh has accused the Government of pandering to the far-right, and called for more humanity when discussing the issue.
"What the Government have started doing, and the opposition, is pondering to the far-right, repeating these claims and phrases used.
"I think what we often forget when it comes to migration is that Europe has the most deadly border in the world. The phrase is often used asylum seekers, but we are talking about people's sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts.
"These are people who have made some of the most horrific journeys, over 30,000 people that we know of have died in the Mediterranean in the last 10 years.
"A lot of our elected TDs have got carried away trying to appease these right-wing extremists, and have forgotten we are talking about people. Dignity and compassion should be the guiding values of any immigration system."
Ms McHugh made headlines in 2019 as she campaigned for the Green Party in the European elections, and the 2020 General Election.
However, she left the party after they entered Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, a decision she said was not difficult.
The Mayo woman has been known for her campaigning on climate issues, and says people are now looking at climate change differently.
"I think people are thinking about climate differently. Five years ago, it was talked about as this distinct issue on its own. People are really realising climate action is ensuring there is clean water.
"It is ensuring there is flood mitigation, so homes aren't repeatedly damaged or made un-livable. It is making sure there is cheap, clean electricity for everybody.
"A lot of these issues are the same issue. I think it is being talked about more as this inter-connected issue. We have to remember that everything to do in our lives is in some way to do with climate.
"There is several ways you can tackle the climate crisis, some measures have been unfair and made people's lives harder, but that is not necessarily how it has to go. All climate action is not the exact same.
"We have a route where we can use the necessity to take action as a way to make people's lives better."
An aspect which Ms McHugh has been highly critical of the EU is Israel's military actions in Gaza.
Ms McHugh has called for EU response a "disgrace", and for trading to be stopped with Israel.
"It has been a disgrace. They are still trading with them. The European Commission and Ursula Von der Leyen were hiding the phrase 'they have the right to defend themselves', but we have all seen the brutality.
"It is daily horror upon daily horror, and we are only seeing bits of it. It is unimaginable, and the fact that the European Union is still trading with Israel, beggars belief really.
"The EU, who are flat out talking about EU values, and they are still trading with Israel who are carrying out one of the most brutal genocides the world has ever witnessed."