UK 'no legal obligation' to accept return of asylum seekers as Irish Cabinet approves plan

The Republic of Ireland is to release 100 police officers from desk duties to work on immigration enforcement, it has been announced.

The gardai, however, will not be assigned to physically police the border, it has been confirmed.

It comes amid a simmering row between the UK and Irish government over asylum seekers crossing the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic.

Recently, Dublin's High Court ruled that Ireland’s decision to designate the UK as a safe third country was against EU law, in the context of the planned transfer of asylum seekers to Rwanda.

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said the UK has “no legal obligation” to accept the return of asylum seekers from Ireland.

It comes as Irish justice minister Helen McEntee brought legislation before the Cabinet which she said will “close any loopholes” so Ireland can return people to the UK.

She said the legislation will be enacted in the coming weeks.

The spokesman for the Prime Minister said there is an existing understanding and operational procedure with the Irish Government regarding the common travel area.

“There is no legal obligation to accept the return of asylum seekers who enter across the common travel area and my understanding is no asylum seekers have ever been returned to the UK under these existing arrangements," they said.

“As the Prime Minister set out yesterday, we’re not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland at a time when the EU doesn’t accept returns back to France.”

The spokesperson said the Prime Minister did not recognise the figure that 80% of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland were coming from the UK via Northern Ireland.

The figure was given by Ms McEntee last week. On Monday, Tanaiste Micheal Martin said the figure was not “evidence-based”.

The spokesperson for the UK Prime Minister added the UK does not collect that data as there are no checks at land borders with Northern Ireland, saying: “It’s up to the Irish Government to collect data on people within Ireland."

Speaking ahead of Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, Ms McEntee said: "We cannot have a loophole where it’s not possible for us as a country to return people under an arrangement that has already been agreed to.

“This is separate to any other arrangement between the UK and the EU. This is because of the fact that we have a Common Travel Area, because of the fact that we have an open border on this island. So it works both ways.

“I’ve also ensured that we will release at least 100 gardai from desktop duties to make sure that they can work in immigration enforcement as well.

"So there’s a number of measures that are ongoing.”

The Department of Justice later clarified that the work required to make the gardai available for the frontline duties will take up to 12 months.

While it emphasised that the protection of an open border on the island of Ireland is a “key priority to the communities on both sides”, it said: “It is not the case that these Gardai will be assigned to physically police the border with Northern Ireland.”

Meanwhile the Taoiseach Simon Harris has emphasised the value of a close relationship with Britain and of protecting the Common Travel Area.

“I had an excellent engagement with the British prime minister upon taking office, I think there’s been really good work done on British-Irish, Irish-British relations over the last period of time, I think the Windsor Framework marks a really important point, and obviously enabled the restoration of the institutions in Northern Ireland,” Mr Harris said.

“The Common Travel Area predates the European Union, for example.

"So we value that and I welcome the comments from the Northern Ireland Secretary of State yesterday, which I think were very sensible."

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