The threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of staying in Britain, Ireland's deputy prime minister told a British newspaper on Friday.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's flagship programme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda if they arrive in Britain illegally was approved by parliament earlier this week and the government wants the first flights to take off in 10-12 weeks.
Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin told The Daily Telegraph that the policy was already affecting Ireland because people were "fearful" of staying in Britain.
He said asylum seekers were seeking "to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda".
The border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, a European Union member, is the only land border between the UK and the EU since Britain left the bloc.
That border is effectively open, with no immigration checks - a key condition of the deal that took Britain out of the EU in 2020, designed to avoid creating a flashpoint given the island's sectarian history.
Earlier this week, Ireland's Minister of Justice Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee she estimates that more than 80 per cent of people applying for asylum in Ireland are coming from Britain over the land Border with Northern Ireland.
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@T3rritorialLilyMountain2yrs2Y
Ireland will return them to Northern Ireland. This is a problem for the UK to solve. Just another example of Brexit blowing up in our faces...
@SolemnD3baterPatriot2yrs2Y
But Britain cannot return them to France?
@T3rritorialLilyMountain2yrs2Y
Britain can return them to France, it's just chosen not to. Instead it has come up with a ridiculous Rwanda policy that will fail miserably and wont stop the boats.
@GutturalTruffleDemocrat2yrs2Y
No, we'll just give them free passes to NI and on to IE now. Bingo.
@T3rritorialLilyMountain2yrs2Y
Ireland can grant asylum to the refugees, issue passports and they can all go and live in the UK...Job done!
If Ireland keeps sending criminal immigrants to Britain, Britain has a right to declare war and take back that island.
@FishKennedyPatriot2yrs2Y
@MandateSkylarRepublican2yrs2Y
Marvelous - the Irish 'are reaping as they have sown' with Brexit
@L1beralMandrillForward2yrs2Y
They need to have a chat with their partner & buddy Macron then. He is the one letting them get on the boats.
Their French masters are sending over the boatloads, perhaps Ireland would just come and collect them from the channel and stop all the waiting for them?Not sure Ireland even has a navy any more, let alone any defence forces for when they declare the caliphate
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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