migration
Ireland wants to send asylum seekers back to Great Britain
The migration of refugees between Great Britain and Ireland is increasingly becoming a political issue between the two countries. (Symbolic image) photo
© Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
The Rwanda agreement from London appears to have consequences for Ireland. The number of asylum seekers is increasing. But is repatriation to Great Britain even possible?
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin had previously complained about an increase in asylum seekers entering over the land border from Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. There are no controls at the border in order not to hinder the economy and not to reheat the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland. According to Dublin, more than 80 percent of asylum seekers in Ireland enter the country this way. Martin partly blamed Britain’s Rwanda policy for the recent surge.
Fear of deportation to Rwanda?
Parliament in London recently passed a law that allows people who have entered the UK irregularly to be returned to Rwanda without examining an asylum application. People should apply for asylum there instead. There are no plans to return to Great Britain. Martin suspected that people were now moving to Ireland out of fear of being sent to Rwanda.
They cannot simply be sent back because an Irish court recently upheld a lawsuit by two migrants who argued that the United Kingdom could no longer be considered a safe third country if deportees had to expect to be taken to Rwanda. The government in Dublin now wants to make this possible again by law.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, meanwhile, hailed Irish concerns as evidence that his asylum pact with Rwanda is having the desired deterrent effect on migrants. “If people come to our country illegally but know they can’t stay, they are much less likely to come,” Sunak told Sky News.