Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Ireland is pushing ahead with legislation to allow asylum seekers to return to the UK, despite Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying he will not take them back, leading to a deepening row between the two countries.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee told reporters on the way to a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that she would seek approval of a law to close “loopholes” and restore the ability to repatriate people.
Ireland’s Supreme Court ruled last month that the UK’s designation as a safe third country to which asylum seekers could be returned was unlawful under EU law, meaning an agreement with London in place since November 2020 could not be applied. The deal had also been suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With this legislation, I address the Supreme Court’s ruling and ensure we close any loopholes that currently exist,” McEntee said. “We need to be able to send people back to the UK. . . We are working with the UK and I don’t expect that to change.”
Her comments came after Sunak, who pushed through a law allowing some asylum seekers arriving in the UK to be flown to Rwanda, on Monday dismissed the prospect of taking asylum seekers back from Ireland.
“We’re not interested in that,” he told ITV News. “We will not accept returns from the EU through Ireland if the EU does not accept returns to France, where illegal migrants come from. Of course we won’t do that.”
The Interior Ministry on Monday launched a nationwide operation to detain asylum seekers in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda.
Ireland, already at loggerheads with the UK over controversial legislation to deal with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles conflict, has not yet sent anyone back to the UK under the 2020 deal.
McEntee said this week that 80 percent of asylum seekers in Ireland had crossed the border from Northern Ireland – something Foreign Minister Micheál Martin cited as a result of Britain’s Rwanda asylum policy.
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, a non-governmental organisation, told RTÉ Radio that the UK had “actually failed to meet its obligations under refugee law”. . . in an attempt to restrict access to the asylum system. If the UK took its responsibilities under refugee law seriously this would not happen.”
McEntee, whose planned meeting with Britain’s Home Secretary James Cleverly was canceled at the last minute by London on Monday, said she would “absolutely ignore” the 80 percent figure even if officials could not provide data to back up her claim .
The Justice Department said the figure was based on the number of asylum seekers at the government’s Office of International Protection rather than at ports of entry, adding that its “confident assessment” was “based on the experience of staff and others working on the ground.” .
Privately, some Conservative ministers in London are skeptical about a sharp rise in the number of asylum seekers traveling to Ireland from the UK since the Rwanda asylum law came into force this month.
Sunak has seized on recent comments from Irish ministers as evidence that his Rwanda policy is causing asylum seekers to change their behavior, but a British minister said: “We haven’t seen any data to support that – it’s been happening for some time.” .” .”
Tensions between Britain and Ireland over immigration come as Ireland struggles to accommodate asylum seekers amid its own housing crisis. A tent city covered in blue tarpaulins has sprung up near the International Protection Office in the Georgian center of Dublin to house some of the 1,758 people Ireland has been unable to accommodate. Most asylum seekers arriving in Ireland come from Nigeria.
Ireland says that, as Sunak argues, returning migrants is not an EU issue but a matter of compliance with an agreement under the Common Travel Area between the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The century-old CTA allows nationals to travel and work in any territory.
Taoiseach Simon Harris told reporters on Tuesday that relations with Britain were “extremely important to me.” . . But I also appreciate the shared travel area. . . When you make an agreement with another country, you implement it.”