Niall Carson/PA
A sprawling ‘tent city’ housing asylum seekers has appeared outside the Office of International Protection (IPO) in Dublin.
British and Irish ministers have been at loggerheads over claims that the UK government’s Rwanda policy is driving the flow of migrants across the Northern Irish border with the republic.
The newly-appointed taoiseach Simon Harris and justice minister Helen McEntee have said an increase in the number of people presenting at the IPO office rather than Dublin Airport or other ports indicates there is a rise in asylum seekers coming over the land border.
An earlier claim by McEntee that 80 per cent of asylum seekers are coming into the country from Northern Ireland was questioned by human rights and refugee organisations, while deputy premier Micheal Martin said it was not based on evidence, statistics or data.
On Monday evening, the department told the PA news agency that 91 per cent 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 80 per cent of cases of those applying for the first time in the IPO have entered over the land border. This would equate to approximately 73 per cent of all applications this year.
Refugee groups have cast doubt on the figure for the proportion of Northern Ireland arrivals while a think tank said a first-time registration rate of approximately 80 per cent at the IPO would not be “unusual” compared with other years.
Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said: “We don’t know how the Department of Justice came to the 80 per cent figure and, as far as we know, has not published its methodology.
“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.”
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