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Ireland will not provide 'loophole' for UK migration challenges - Harris

Updated / Monday, 29 Apr 2024 06:22

Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that Ireland will not "provide a loophole" for the migration challenges in other countries.

Speaking at an event in Monaghan, Mr Harris said that while every country is entitled to its own migration policy, he does not intend to allow the policies of others to "affect the integrity of our own one".

"This country will not in any way shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else's migration challenges," he said.

Mr Harris's comments come after it emerged 80% of recent asylum seeker arrivals to Ireland came from the UK via the land border with Northern Ireland.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said this shows his government's so-called Rwanda policy is working as a deterrent.

The Rwanda policy will see asylum seekers arriving in the UK being placed on a one-way flight to Rwanda, with the aim of deterring others from crossing the English Channel to England from Europe on small boats.

The Taoiseach said that the Government intends to have a firm rules-based system that is enforced and seen to be enforced.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and UK Home Secretary James Cleverly, which was due to take place today, has been postponed.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it will be rescheduled in the near future.

It comes amid tensions between both countries over the movement of migrants from the UK to Ireland.

No contact from Irish Govt on issue of people crossing border, says O'Neill

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she has had no contact from the Irish Government on the issue of people looking for international protection coming across the border from the North.

Speaking at the launch of Sinn Féin's local and European election campaign in Dublin, Ms O'Neill said: "I've yet to hear from Helen McEntee, or the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste in terms of the issues they have outlined over the last number of days and for me that highlights or maybe even underlines how disorganised they are in dealing with this issue.

"Policy responsibility for the immigration system sits with the British government. I'm aware that Helen McEntee will meet James Cleverly over the next 24 to 36 hours.

"There's also a British-Irish intergovernmental conference this week. This is the forum at which these issues need to be addressed."

When asked whether the Government intended to carry out checks on people crossing the border into the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland, the Taoiseach said that gardaí and the PSNI already collaborate and work together but that more was needed.

"I do certainly think there's going to be a need for much more of that, in terms of that collaboration," he said.

Returning asylum seekers

Legislation is to be introduced at Cabinet on Tuesday in response to a recent High Court ruling that Ireland's designation of the UK as a "safe third country" for returning asylum seekers, in the context of the Rwanda plan, is contrary to EU law.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke said he has not yet seen the legislation that will be going to Cabinet but there needs to be "a lot of joined operations" with police in Northern Ireland to deal with the issue of asylum seekers crossing the border, which he described as a "huge challenge".

Mr Harris said that the new legislative proposals that will be brought forward to Cabinet will seek to put in place a new returns policy.

"We will await the full details of that but it is one that will allow for people to be returned to the United Kingdom," he said.

But the British government rejects any bid by Ireland to return asylum seekers to the UK, the Press Association reports.

"We won't accept any asylum returns from the EU via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France," a British government source told PA.

"We are fully focused on operationalising our Rwanda scheme and will continue working with the French to stop the boats from crossing the Channel."

Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill were speaking at an election event in Dublin

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys warned against the use of language by some opposition politicians around "open borders".

"We're an island as you know and the only open border we have is with Northern Ireland and we want to keep that in place," she said.

"We fought hard to keep that open during Brexit and it's important that that stays.

"I think people need to be careful in the language that they use because it can cause difficulties.

"We know what the British said around Brexit, it was, you know 'Bring Back Our Borders'; that's wrong.

"We shouldn't be talking like that. It's dangerous language and we need to be careful."

EU Migration Pact would 'protect our people' - Burke

Mr Burke said the EU Migration Pact, which would set new regulations to deal with asylum seekers, would "protect our people" and ensure a strong migratory policy.

Earlier this month, MEPs approved the revamped migration system that the EU promises will reduce irregular arrivals.

It aims to cut the times for security and asylum procedures at external EU borders and increase returns to reduce unwanted immigration from the Middle East and Africa, a high priority on the bloc's agenda.

Mr Burke said that if Ireland was outside the pact and people were to come into Ireland, the ability to return them would be "significantly compromised".

"We'd actually become a destination then because we would be an outlier and we'd be outside this pact," he said.

Asked about plans to overhaul the EU's migration system, Ms McDonald said: "I think the turn of events and the specific set of circumstances that we have to deal with on the island of Ireland actually argue against signing up to the EU Migration Pact - lock, stop and barrel.

"Unlike other European jurisdictions, we have to deal with our next-door neighbour of Britain and we have to have the flexibility and the capacity to manage that."

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said he believes there should be an Irish Sea border and that a person coming onto the island of Ireland should have a passport check. He said the idea of checkpoints on the border "was not possible".

Independent TD Marian Harkin said the asylum system here "is not working". She said the system works in other countries but "just doesn't work for Ireland".

"What Ireland must do is have a system in place that is fair and robust but that works, and that's not happening," she said.

She said they are "genuinely concerned" about giving that responsibility or part of it over to the EU.

Additional reporting from PA

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