Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin said Britain’s new migration law on Rwanda was already “having an impact on Ireland” as many asylum seekers were arriving in the country from Northern Ireland fearing deportation, TRT World reports.
Martin told the media: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
His comments came just after Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary scrutiny committee on Thursday that more than 80 per cent of asylum seekers in Ireland have recently arrived in the country from Britain.
Martin said the policy was already “having an impact on Ireland” as asylum seekers were “fearful” of staying in the UK because of the Rwanda Bill.
It came amid growing tensions over immigration levels in Ireland, which is struggling with a housing crisis affecting both its own residents and asylum seekers.
Overnight, six people were arrested during a protest at a site designated to house asylum seekers in Newtownmountkennedy in County Wicklow.
A Rwanda bill aimed at sending asylum seekers to Rwanda has become law after receiving royal assent on Thursday. One of the most controversial migration policy options of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government, the Rwanda plan has sparked international criticism and mass protests across the UK.
The law would address concerns raised by the UK Supreme Court, which ruled that the government’s original plan to send asylum seekers to the East African country of Rwanda was unlawful.
It also obliges judges to treat Rwanda as a safe country and gives the Cabinet the power to ignore certain provisions of the Human Rights Act.
In January 2023, Sunak said tackling small boats carrying illegal migrants across the Channel from France was one of his government’s top five priorities after more than 45,000 people reportedly used the route to reach the UK in 2022.
