The Irish government intends to legislate urgently to be able to send back migrants to the United Kingdom, faced with an influx from its neighbor in the wake of the British policy of expulsions towards Rwanda.
According to the Irish government, 80% of recent arrivals of illegal aliens are via the land border, opened under the 1998 peace agreement – between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland .
Questioned in an interview broadcast on Sky News on Sunday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke of the dissuasive effect of the law, adopted this week, which should allow the United Kingdom to soon deport migrants to Rwanda.
>> Reread: Controversial bill on the expulsion of migrants to Rwanda adopted in the United Kingdom
According to the Irish public media RTE, citing a spokesperson for Prime Minister Simon Harris (centrist), he asked his Minister of Justice to make proposals next week to “amend the current law concerning the designation of countries safe third parties and enable the return of ineligible applicants for international protection to the United Kingdom.
This is “one measure among many others that we are taking to strengthen our system and ensure that it is strong, efficient and agile,” said the spokesperson.
Growing tensions
If according to his spokesperson the head of the Irish government “does not comment on the migration policy of another country”, he underlines “the importance of protecting the integrity of the migration system in Ireland”. The country of five million inhabitants, a member of the European Union, has been plagued in recent months by growing tensions over the accommodation of migrants, with an increase in hostile demonstrations sometimes punctuated by incidents.
On RTE, Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee said on Saturday that she would discuss the return of migrants to the United Kingdom with British Interior Minister James Cleverly during a visit to London on Monday.
“What is clear in the decision that the United Kingdom took in choosing Brexit is that they are seeing an increase in asylum seekers in their country,” the minister declared on RTE on Saturday.
“My concern as Minister of Justice is to ensure that we have an effective immigration system and structures,” she said. “That’s why I will be introducing emergency legislation this week to ensure that we can indeed return people effectively to the UK,” she added.
>> Listen to the media debate on London’s decision to expel refugees to Rwanda:
ats/afp/lan
