Politicians must avoid 'de-humanising the migrant', says Micheál Martin

Speaking at a visit to a migration centre in Mexico City, Micheál Martin said that people should not be playing politics on the matter of immigration.

Politicians around the world and across the political spectrum must avoid “de-humanising the migrant”, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said.

Speaking at a visit to a migration centre in Mexico City, Mr Martin said that people should not be playing politics on the matter of immigration.

“I’ve watched governments across the world saying that ‘we’re going to stop this’. 

"Brexit happened because of a fear of migration,” Mr Martin said.

“Brexit hasn’t stopped migration in the United Kingdom and I think we have to learn from that and try and deal with the underlying causes but also to understand the human stories behind all this.” 

During his visit, the Tánaiste was briefed by officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration Mexico.

The centre itself, known as the Cafemin Migration Centre, was set up in 2012 and was originally supposed to hold just 100 refugees. 

However, there are currently 600 men, women and children living in the former school building.

Micheál Martin at the Cafemin Migration Centre.

Asked about anti-migrant sentiment in Ireland and internationally, Mr Martin said that he believed it is an issue that needs to be tackled globally.

“We have to stand back and reflect because people in all communities have concerns. 

"We have to strengthen communications, we have to engage with communities.” 

He added that a medium-term solution to migration is to further invest in poorer countries, to ensure they have a better quality of life and are not required to leave their homes.

“Much of this is people are desperate to get out of countries, families here are desperate to get out of the locations that they’re in either because of violence, conflict, war and a whole range of other reasons.” 

The Tánaiste said that further focus needed to be placed on the issue of people trafficking, following the briefing which showed that more drug traffickers are opting to move into people trafficking due to how lucrative it can be.

“The journeys these families are making are quite extraordinary, dangerous and risky,” Mr Martin said.

In recent years in Mexico, the number of people seeking asylum has skyrocketed, with a record 140,812 applications in 2023 alone.

The country is now among the top five countries in the world for asylum applications, with 390,768 applications in the last three years.