The Cabinet is expected to back emergency legislation on Tuesday to facilitate transfer to the United Kingdom of asylum seekers who have arrived through Northern Ireland – but British prime minister Rishi Sunak says the UK will not accept them.
Disagreements over asylum seekers have led to a diplomatic row between the two governments, while Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has come under pressure to explain her claim last week that more than 80 per cent of people applying for asylum in Ireland were coming from the UK over the land border with Northern Ireland.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin seemed to cast some doubt on the claim on Tuesday. “It’s not statistical, it’s not a database or evidence base,” he said when asked by The Irish Times in London about the 80 per cent figure. “There’s been a switch in terms of the pattern of migration; that’s the sense from our justice officials.”
Figures seen by The Irish Times show there has been a sharp increase in the proportion of people applying for asylum at the International Protection Office (IPO) compared to airports, with the ratio moving from 1:1 to more than 10:1 in the space of five years.
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In the first three months of 2024, 4,715 people applied for asylum directly at the IPO at Mount Street, Dublin, compared to 420 who applied at airports and seaports, Department of Justice figures show.
Podcast: The row between Ireland and the UK over migration, explained
On Monday night, a spokeswoman for the department said it was the “firm assessment, based on the experience of staff and others working in the field, and based on the material gathered at interviews, that over 80 per cent of cases of those applying for the first time in the IPO have entered over the land border. This is the department’s operational assessment of the situation.”
The Irish Government says it will quickly pass legislation to enable asylum seekers who come here from the UK to be sent back, after the High Court blocked the practice last month because of concerns about the British government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Ms McEntee will tell Ministers that returns to the UK will recommence once the new law is enacted, designating it a “safe country” for this purpose.
The Department of Justice has been working on this as a priority since last month’s High Court judgment.
But Mr Sunak said on Monday that he was “not interested” in an agreement with Dublin – although Mr Martin, who was speaking at a meeting with British ministers – said there was already an agreement in existence between the two governments.
In an interview with ITV, Mr Sunak said: “We’re not going to accept returns from the European Union via Ireland when the EU doesn’t accept returns back to France, where illegal migrants are coming from. Of course we’re not going to do that,” he said.
Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and Mr Martin sought to play down the row at a meeting in London on Monday, after home secretary James Cleverly cancelled a meeting with Ms McEntee and she in turn abandoned a plan to travel to London for meetings.
“We will obviously monitor all this very closely and continue to work with the Irish Government on these matters,” Mr Heaton-Harris said, adding there was “no way that we would want to upset our relationship with Ireland”.
Mr Heaton-Harris said he was “comfortable” with the Irish Government’s proposed legislation, which he said would reset the legal position to what it was before the court ruling.
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