UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that he is “not interested” in making a deal just with Ireland to facilitate migrant returns after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that 80% of those making asylum claims in Ireland are now coming from the UK.
McEntee was expected to discuss a possible resolution to the issue with UK government figures during a visit to London today which was subsequently cancelled.
Sunak had said that the figures show that his Rwanda scheme is proving effective.
Saying that he is “very confident” the Rwanda scheme is inline with “international law” and the UK’s “international obligations”, Sunak said he makes “absolutely no apology” for “doing everything” he can “to tackle illegal migration.”
Asked whether the UK would seek to forge a return scheme with Ireland, Sunak said “we’re not interested in that”.
He added, “We’re not going to accept returns from the EU 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.
Sunak said he was “focused squarely” on getting the Rwanda scheme “up and running” adding that he wants a deterrent “which will say that if you come to our country illegally, you will not be able to stay and you will be removed either to your own country if it’s safe, or to Rwanda.”
“That’s why we’ve done all the prep work for this” he said, repeating that he wants the scheme “up and running” and that he is “confident” that it’ll work.
His comments came after Taoiseach Simon Harris requested the Minister for Justice to bring emergency laws to the table this week after the Department of Justice claimed that 80% of asylum arrivals were entering the Republic of Ireland via Northern Ireland.
Speaking to RTÉ yesterday, Helen McEntee said, “”There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration toward Ireland.
“What’s clear in the decision that the UK have taken in choosing Brexit they have actually seen an increase in people seeking asylum in their country. The way that they deal with that, it’s their policy.
“My focus as Minister for Justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.
“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at Cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the Home Secretary to raise these issues on Monday.” she said before the meeting was cancelled.
Figures released earlier show that the number of asylum seekers coming to Ireland has risen 72% compared to figures for the same period last year.
As Gript previously reported, figures from the Department of Integration show that up until March 28th a total of 5,163 asylum seekers arrived in Ireland, this compares to 2,995 claims for international protection over the same period in 2023.
The largest numbers came from Nigeria with 1,668 arrivals with the next largest group coming from Bangladesh with 416 arrivals.
The 4th, 5th, and 6th largest cohort came from Pakistan 400, Somalia 365, Afghanistan 243, and Zimbabwe 209.
104 applicants came from Botswana, and 108 from Georgia which were both recently declared a ‘safe county’ by Minister for Justice Helen McEntee.
Over 43 other countries were featured on the list of countries of origin.
A total of 13,277 applications for international protection were made last year.