Diplomatic row erupts as Britain rejects any bid by Ireland to return migrants to UK | EUROtoday

A diplomatic row has erupted between the UK authorities and Ireland after Rishi Sunak’s administration warned any bid by the Republic to return asylum seekers to Britain can be rejected.

Mr Sunak on Saturday stated that claims the Rwanda plan is chargeable for an inflow of migrants into Ireland present its deterrent impact is working.

Irish premier Simon Harris hit again on Sunday, saying Ireland wouldn’t “provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges” and asking his justice minister to deliver ahead emergency laws to permit asylum seekers to be despatched again to the UK.

A authorities supply has now stated any makes an attempt to return the asylum seekers to Britain would quantity to a grave double normal provided that the UK isn’t allowed to ship migrants who cross the English Channel again to France.

“We won’t accept any asylum returns from the European Union via Ireland until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France,” the supply stated. “We are fully focused on operationalising our Rwanda scheme and will continue working with the French to stop the boats from crossing the Channel.”

The taoiseach stated earlier this week that Mr Sunak’s plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda has brought about an uptick within the variety of asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic.

In response, a spokesperson for Mr Harris stated the Irish PM requested his justice minister, Helen McEntee, “to bring proposals to cabinet next week to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”.

Ms McEntee stated she can be assembly with British residence secretary James Cleverly on Monday to lift these points.

The Conservatives’ plan to ship asylum seekers to the east African nation acquired a contemporary increase on Thursday after the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act was signed into regulation, which ensures the follow of sending migrants to Rwanda is legally sound.

Mr Sunak later claimed the primary flights to Rwanda would take off inside 10 to 12 weeks, greater than two years after the invoice was initially proposed by former prime minister Boris Johnson in April 2022.

Deputy Irish premier Micheal Martin subsequently claimed there had been an inflow of asylum seekers crossing into Ireland throughout the land border with Northern Ireland as a result of folks had been “fearful” of being deported to Rwanda.

He stated asylum seekers had been looking for “to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda”.

A Downing Street spokesperson disputed these claims, saying it was “too early to jump to specific conclusions about the act”, referring to the Safety of Rwanda Act.

But Mr Sunak later claimed the alleged inflow of migrants into Ireland was proof that the Rwanda plan was working as a deterrent to migrants.

“What it shows, I think, is that the deterrent is already having an impact because people are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he informed Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

“If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay, they’re much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”