Tánaiste says 80pc figure for migrants crossing border ‘not based on evidence’ after UK PM slaps down returns deal with Ireland

Mr Martin made the remarks after the minister last week claimed the number of asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland into the State is now "higher than 80pc" following a shift in migration patterns in recent months.

The figure has since been questioned by human rights and refugee organisations.

It comes as UK and Irish ministers are meeting in London following a fall-out over migrants travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and into the Irish state.

Asked about the evidence for the claim today, Mr Martin said it was "clear from the presentation of migrants" that there was a change in where they came from.

He added that the Department of Justice had a "perspective" that there had been an increase in the number of arrivals through Northern Ireland.

Speaking to reporters at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, Mr Martin said: "On the 80pc and the evidence: Over a while, I think the Department of Justice officials would say - and it's not statistical, it's not a database or evidence base - but it is very clear from the presentations of migrants that there's a change in the nature of where migrants have come from, and that's the sense and the perspective that Justice have on this.

"Increasingly over the last year or two, there's been a shift. If you remember, all the earlier commentary was on people coming in on planes without documentation and so on.

"That has lessened somewhat and there's been a switch in terms of the pattern of migration, that's the sense from our Justice officials."

On Friday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said the figures provided by Ms McEntee were based on the number of people registering at the International Protection Office (IPO) in Dublin.

However, representatives from the Irish Refugee Council and the Committee on the Administration of Justice cast doubt on the figures.

The Department of Justice tonight said it stood by its assessment that a majority of asylum seekers are coming into the country through Northern Ireland.

The department told the PA news agency that 91pc of applications at the IPO so far in 2024 were made there for the first time rather than an airport or other port.

It said that its operational assessment was that more than 80pc of cases of those applying for the first time in the IPO have entered over the land border. This would equate to approximately 72pc of all applications this year.

In a statement, a spokeswoman said there are a number of circumstances in which someone might apply in the IPO without first applying at a port of entry.

“They may enter at an airport with valid documentation for example but choose not to apply at that time. Or they may apply having been in the State for a period previously, for example on foot of a different permission to remain.

“However, the department’s firm assessment, based on the experience of staff and others working in the field, and based on the material gathered at interviews, is that over 80pc of cases of those applying for the first time in the IPO have entered over the land border. This is the department’s operational assessment of the situation.”

It comes as the Irish Government doubled down on its commitment to press ahead with plans to send asylum seekers coming from across the Border back to the UK.

It followed UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s remarks today when he said he is "not interested" in pursuing a deal with Dublin on returning asylum-seekers from Ireland to the UK.

He told ITV News: "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."

However, the Irish Government remains defiant in its plans to send back asylum seekers. It is examining laws to designate the UK as a “safe” country. Applications from asylum seekers coming from countries designated as “safe” are processed quicker.

“Ireland already shares a common travel area with the UK,” said a government spokesperson.

“We are looking at legislation to facilitate the 2020 arrangement that was in place up until last month when the Irish High Court ruled the UK couldn’t be designated a safe country. The Minister for Justice will bring proposals to cabinet tomorrow," they added.

A senior government source said Ireland is not going to engage in a "tit for tat" with the UK.

A second source said UK sign off is not needed for Ireland to pass and implement its own migration policies.

Ireland has been thrown into a diplomatic row with the UK after Justice Minister Helen McEntee's counterpart James Cleverly cancelled a meeting with her on Monday, saying there were scheduling clashes.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee then pulled out of a conference she was due to attend in London amid the deepening row with the UK over migration.

The row comes after the minister revealed last week that 80pc of international protection applicants coming into Ireland are doing so from the UK via the Northern Ireland land border.

The Irish Refugee Council has this morning questioned where this 80pc figure came from, and warned that proposed Irish emergency legislation to send migrants back to the UK may not be legally sound.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris co-chaired the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London today.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Chris Heaton-Harris insisted the UK government did not want to “upset” its Irish neighbours.

Mr Heaton-Harris said: “We know this is a very important matter for the British people and we intend to deliver on it.

“There is no way that we would want to upset our relationship with Ireland in this space.”

There was a “joint commitment to protect the common travel area from abuse”, he added.

Micheál Martin said he had moved to assure British officials at the conference today that the legislation would deal with the repercussions of a decision by Ireland’s High Court, which found that the basis for designating the UK a “safe country” for asylum purposes was contrary to EU law.

Mr Martin said that the decision related to an agreement on “returning” asylum seekers to the UK – and vice versa – that was struck between the two governments after Brexit.

“So basically, it is restoring the situation to where it was before the High Court case of last March. That’s, in essence, what has been proposed,” Mr Martin said at the joint press event with Mr Heaton-Harris.

“If this legislation is, as I believe it is and I’ve been assured it is, just setting us back in time to where we were and what we were dealing with, then I’m comfortable with that,” Mr Heaton-Harris said.

“But we are fully behind implementing our Rwanda scheme.”

Mr Martin said that Ireland’s Attorney General had advised that legislation would be needed “to create a proper statutory basis for an agreement that we earlier had”.

“The High Court struck down the basis upon which we had we arrived at an agreement with the British government after Brexit. There was an arrangement, an agreement in terms of managing this issue, and these agreements have to be mutual.

“No one country could say ‘we’re sending back’ if there’s not a reciprocal agreement, and it works both ways – so the United Kingdom could send people back to the Republic who might have originated here.

“That’s the legislative backdrop underpinning all of this.”

He said that both governments are committed to working together to deal with Common Travel Area issues including migration.

Mr Martin said Justice Minister Helen McEntee and UK home secretary James Cleverly will meet "in the coming weeks" after their meeting today was postponed.

‘Diary clash’

Earlier today, Media Minister Catherine Martin said the meeting between the pair was cancelled due to a “genuine diary clash”.

"I would say from what I've been told it is a genuine diary clash and that both ministers are determined to meet at the earliest opportunity," she said, emphasising that it was a "postponement, not a cancellation,” Ms Martin said.

Irish ministers are expected to discuss emergency legislation that would see asylum seekers "returned" to the UK tomorrow.

The legislation is being drafted in response to an Irish High Court ruling which found that Ireland designating the UK as a "safe third country" for returning asylum seekers, in the context of the Rwanda plan, is contrary to EU law.

The UK government said it would decide who is allowed to enter the country, despite any legislation the Irish Government may pass.

The British prime minister's official spokesman said on Monday: "Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who we do and don't accept into the country and, clearly, we aren't going to start accepting returns from the EU just as the EU doesn't accept asylum returns from the UK to France."

Mel Stride, the UK Work and Pensions Secretary, said on Monday that the claimed increase in people seeking asylum in Ireland who have crossed the border are early signs of the Rwanda plan's effectiveness.

Asked whether the UK would accept asylum seekers being sent back across the border into Northern Ireland, Mr Stride told LBC: "We are not in the business of having more illegal migrants in the UK.

"What you are seeing now are the early signs of the deterrent effect works. That's exactly why we are now having this conversation, because we have now passed that legislation."

Labour's David Lammy said it is "way too premature" to say that the Rwanda plan is working.

"I suspect, actually, as the weather warms up we will see this scheme, I'm afraid, has not deterred many, many people from crossing the Channel," the shadow foreign secretary told LBC.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 29th April 2024

Speaking before her meeting with UK home secretary James Cleverly was cancelled, Ms McEntee said in a statement: “I am looking forward to discussing a number of important issues with the home secretary, including how we can better protect the Common Travel Area from abuse.

“From an Irish perspective, it is essential that we can return people back to the UK when appropriate. Over the last month, I have been working on emergency legislation to allow us to recommence returns there.

“I will seek government approval for the legislation to be rapidly drafted so that the UK can again be designated as a safe country for returns.

“My department has been working on this as a priority since last month’s High Court judgment, and I intend that returns to the UK will recommence once the law is enacted.”

Ms McEntee said fast processing of international protection applicants had been extended to Nigeria, the country with the highest number of applicants currently.

Under this regime, applicants for international protection were interviewed on their arrival and received a decision within 90 days, meaning those with a right to protection got it more quickly and those without a right were returned more quickly, Ms McEntee said.

She said she had engaged with gardaí on abuses of the Common Travel Area and they were working closely with the PSNI.

“I announced last month that my department would take over the immigration registration function from the gardaí,” she said.

“This will be completed in the next 12 months and will free up 100 additional gardaí for frontline enforcement work, including around deportations.”

Irish Refugee Council

The Irish Refugee Council (IRC) has questioned the 80pc figure.

“We don’t know how the Department of Justice came to the 80pc figure and, as far as we know, has not published its methodology,” chief executive Nick Henderson said in a statement today.

“Just because a person has not applied for protection at an airport or port it does not automatically mean the person has crossed the border from Northern Ireland. A person may pass through immigration control and then apply for protection at the IPO [International Protection Office]. They may not want to apply at the airport or port because they think they will be placed back on the flight and returned putting them at risk of persecution.”

The IRC also said a person may be in Ireland with one status, but due to a change in circumstances, such as war in their country, they need to apply for protection.

“For example, we have supported people from Gaza in this type of situation. This is known as 'sur place' refugees,” Mr Henderson said.

He said that if people are moving to Ireland from the UK in great numbers, “it should be viewed in the context that the UK is not a safe country for people seeking protection and does not currently process applications for protection if the person is deemed to have entered the UK irregularly”.

The IRC also pointed out that the High Court declared last month that the process behind the designation of the UK as a safe third country “is contrary to Ireland's obligations under EU law”.

"It did not even need to consider the Rwanda issue to come to that conclusion,” the IRC said.

Mr Henderson also said that under the UK’s Illegal Migration Act 2023, “the majority of protection claims made in the UK are permanently inadmissible”.

“If you enter the UK in a particular way (e.g. by boat) your protection application cannot be processed in the UK,” he said.

“Any protection or relevant human rights claim must automatically be declared inadmissible. That means the claim will never be considered in the UK’s asylum system, no matter how strong it may be. The UN Refugee Agency has described this as amounting to ‘an asylum bar’ in the UK.

“The UK Refugee Council published research last week stating that the Illegal Migration Act could leave more than 100,000 men, women and children seeking asylum in permanent limbo by the end of 2024.”

He said it was also worth noting that the Northern Irish Human Rights Commission advice is that the Illegal Migration Act 2023 is inconsistent with the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Henderson said that emergency legislation cited by government over the weekend would have to firstly overcome the issues identified by the High Court decision.

“Even then, according to Section 21 of the International Protection Act 2015, a finding of inadmissibility and that a person can only be removed to a safe third country requires various conditions to be met,” he said.

These include the person having sufficient connection to that country.

“Sufficient connection means time spent in the country, family connections and cultural connection,” he said.

“A person can only be removed if they would be re-admitted to the country; this is unclear given UK government statements.

“A person must also have the possibility to request refugee status; it is unclear if the Illegal Migration Act’s provisions on finding applications inadmissible also allows for a person to lodge an application. A finding of inadmissibility and that the person can be returned to a safe country, is also an appealable decision to the IPAT [International Protection Appeals Tribunal] so the process may take a considerable amount of time.”

Taoiseach warning

Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach ­Simon Harris said a new proposal allowing migrants to be returned to the UK from Ireland would be brought before the Cabinet next week.

He said other countries’ policies on migration would not be allowed to have an impact on those of Ireland.

“Every country is entitled to have its own migration policy, but I certainly don’t intend to allow anybody else’s migration policy to affect the integrity of our own one,” he said.

“This country will not in any way, shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges. That’s very clear, other countries can decide how they wish to advance migration.

“From an Irish perspective, we intend to have a firm, rules-based system where rules are in place, where rules are enforced and where rules are seen to be enforced.”

Also yesterday, Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill called for a “thought-out” response to people who seek asylum in Ireland after travelling from the UK.

The Sinn Féin vice-president said none of Mr Harris, Mr Martin or Ms McEntee had yet been in contact with her about planned legislation on asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland from the UK.

“I am the First Minister in the North and I have yet to hear from the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste or the Justice Minister,” she said. “To me, that highlights, maybe even underlines, how disorganised they are in dealing with this issue.