Migrants pitch tents in Dublin as Irish government attempts to return asylum seekers to UK

The Irish government has proposed new legislation to make it easier to send migrants to the UK after a rise in numbers of asylum seekers in recent months, ITV News Correspondent John Ray reports

People have set up camp in Dublin as the Irish government raised concerns the UK government’s Rwanda policy is driving the flow of migrants across the border.

A sprawling "tent city" has popped up near the International Protection Office in Dublin as the UK rejected demands to take back asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told ITV News he is “not interested” in any sort of returns deal with the republic if the European Union did not allow the UK to send back asylum seekers who had crossed the English Channel from France. The issue has been highlighted after the passage of the UK government’s Rwanda legislation, which paves the way for asylum seekers to be sent on a one-way trip to the African nation. The UK government has hailed the deterrent effect of the Rwanda scheme, which is intended to help stop small boat crossings from France. But the Irish government has claimed that the number of asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland is now “higher than 80%” due to a shift in migration patterns in recent months. The issue was discussed by the UK and Irish governments at high-level talks in London on Monday.

The Irish government has proposed new legislation to make it easier to send migrants to the UK, effectively reversing an Irish High Court ruling that the UK was no longer a “safe third country” for returning asylum seekers because of the Rwanda plan. But Mr Sunak told ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston there was no desire in Westminster to accept asylum seekers back from Ireland. “We’re not interested in that. 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.” Asked whether there were any negotiations with the EU on returns, he said: “No, I’m focused on getting our Rwanda scheme up and running.”

Meanwhile, Channel crossings continued on Monday and Home Office figures showed that more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey - reaching a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year. Some 500 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK on Friday and Saturday alone, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 7,167. This exceeds the previous record high figure of 6,691 for January to April 2022 and has already surpassed the 5,946 arrivals in the first four months of last year. It means arrivals are 24% higher than this time last year and 7% higher than at this point in 2022.

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