According to Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee, around 80 percent of migrants enter the country through the UK. The migrants crossed the open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

McEntee told Ireland’s RTE News: “The UK has seen an increase in asylum seekers since Brexit. They choose their own policies. But my focus as Minister for Justice is to achieve an effective migration policy in Ireland.” Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said he had no sympathy because it ‘offers a loophole to other people’s migration problems’.

British politicians reacted strongly to the plans. Government sources in London told The Telegraph that the UK will not take back asylum seekers from Ireland as long as the European Union does not accept British asylum seekers in France.

One way ticket to Rwanda

Last week, the British Parliament approved migration legislation guaranteeing that asylum seekers who cross the Channel illegally can be deported to Rwanda. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to send the first asylum seekers to the East African country on one-way plane tickets within ten to twelve weeks. Currently the first migrants are being held waiting for the first flight.

Deported migrants ended up in the following hotels in Rwanda:

Not only England, Ireland is also experiencing dissatisfaction with the increasing number of asylum seekers. In recent years, asylum seeker centers have been burned, anti-migration demonstrations have been held and riots have broken out in the Irish capital, Dublin, after the alleged perpetrator of a stabbing was of migrant background. Additionally, migration in Ireland – as in the UK – is high on the political agenda due to national elections due to be held later this year.

Before Brexit, the British government could return asylum seekers to France. Under European agreements, refugees must apply for asylum in the country where they entered the EU. However, since Brexit, this rule no longer applies in the UK and a new agreement on this matter has not been concluded.

However, during the Brexit negotiations, there was an agreement regarding migration between Ireland (which is still part of the EU) and Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK).

Ireland was recently banned from sending refugees back to Northern Ireland. An Irish judge last month ruled that Britain was not a ‘safe country’ because refugees there risked being deported to Rwanda. The Irish Minister of Justice tried to circumvent this decision through emergency legislation.