Ireland’s government is pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers that cross into the country from Northern Ireland back to the UK in the wake of the Rwanda bill.
The UK will not take back asylum seekers who cross the border into Ireland “until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”, according to a government source.
Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week that more than 80% of recent arrivals in Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister and foreign secretary Micheal Martin said the threat of deportation to Rwanda was causing “fearful” migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.
As the row deepened on Sunday night, Irish prime minister Simon Harris vowed the country would “not provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges”.
He also said that “close” collaboration and cooperation between the British and Irish governments was “not just desirable, but absolutely essential”.
However, a UK government source said any bid to return asylum seekers from Ireland would be rejected unless France agreed to do the same with boats crossing the Channel.
“We won’t accept any asylum returns from the EU via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France,” the source said.
It comes as figures showed the number of migrants that crossed the Channel in small boats during the first four months of the year was at its highest-ever level.
A major operation by the Home Office to detain migrants across the UK in preparation for their deportation to Rwanda had begun “weeks earlier than expected”.
Ministers from both countries are set to meet in London on Monday as part of a pre-planned conference, involving Mr Martin and the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris.
However, a meeting between the UK home secretary, James Cleverly, and Ms McEntee, planned for Monday, was postponed late on Sunday night.
