JUSTICE Minister Helen McEntee was advised by her Department two years ago that the UK’s Rwanda plan was likely to result in asylum seekers coming here.
She was told that while Britain’s policy of deporting some unsuccessful asylum seekers to the East African nation was “mired in legal actions”, it was likely to have a knock-on effect for other states.
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Officials said the Rwanda initiative could make Ireland seem like
“an attractive alternative” or as “a stepping stone” to later getting back into the United Kingdom permanently.
It comes as an African man revealed that asylum seekers are being told in England to go to Ireland where there will be work for them.
Tedros from Eritrea has been sleeping on the streets of Dublin for the past five nights, making his home in Mount Street’s tent town before it was dismantled.
Earlier this week, authorities moved 285 people out of the tent village that had developed outside the International Protection Office in Dublin and sought to accommodate them in Citywest and another site in Crooksling near Tallaght.
Trucks were used to scrape the tents off the street while cleaners in boiler suits sprayed down the paths before erecting fencing to block any tents being erected on the street again.
The briefing, which was prepared in 2022 as the department considered an end to a COVID-19 moratorium on deportations, said UK policy on migration would inevitably affect Ireland.
The issue of migration has resulted in a diplomatic dispute between Ireland and the UK in recent days with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak clashing with Taoiseach Simon Harris.
The Conservative government in the UK are pushing ahead with plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed – however, only one person has been sent so far.
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Minister McEntee has claimed that more than 80 per cent of people who are applying for asylum in Ireland are arriving here from the UK.
A 2020 agreement between the two countries is supposed to enable the Ireland to send asylum seekers that have come here from the UK back to Britain – and vice versa.
However, no people have officially been sent back to the UK by Ireland through this deal with the Government blaming Covid-19 restrictions and a recent High Court decision.
Minister McEntee is currently drafting legislation to address this High Court ruling with the Government aiming to send asylum seekers who have come to Ireland from Britain back to the UK.
However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak this week claimed that Britain has no legal requirement to accept people back from Ireland.
Here in Dublin, Tedros was back again today, hoping to get a place to stay.
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He said he first arrived in Europe in Italy before moving to France where he claimed he saw people being forced onto boats to the UK by gangs.
Then when he arrived in the UK he was told that he should go to Ireland so he travelled to Belfast before making his way to Dublin.
‘You hear that there is work’
He told the Irish Sun: “They tell you in the UK to go to Ireland. They tell you to go. You hear that there is work and you can get jobs easily here. I think this is a good country with good people.”
Tedros, who left his home country in 2022 because “the government is bad, it is dangerous”, said the conditions on Mount Street had become “very bad.”
He went to Citywest after the tent camp was removed on Wednesday but he was told that there were no more beds in the building.
He said: “They said it was full. I don’t know where to go.”
Refugees plan return to city centre
The group of men who were living in the tent village are again planning to sleep on the streets of the capital after they were told the State accommodation was too full.
Asylum seekers travelled to Citywest of the Crooksling camp in buses and taxis with a group of people at Citywest turned away and left with no other options than to return to the streets of the Capital but this time without tents.
A crowd of around 70 asylum seekers who were waiting outside the IPO for information about where to go were told there are no accommodation available for them.
Jad from Jordan has come to Ireland with his 19-year-old son. The father and son travelled to the UK before moving to Belfast and then travelling down to Dublin.
Told there was ‘no room’
Standing outside the IPO building on Mount Street, Jad was video calling with his wife who has remained in Jordan with their two younger children.
Jad had been sleeping on the streets and heard about people being sent from Mount Street to Citywest.
He told the Irish Sun that he paid €40 to get a taxi out to Citywest where he waited for five hours before being told that the building was full.
He said: “The security told us there was no room. I asked where I go and they said go to the street. My tent was here but it is gone.
‘No idea’ where to go
“I sleep at the Spire last night with no tent. There were some others there. I have no idea where I am going to go. I will wait.”
Around 70 people were queuing outside the International Protection Office this morning as they waited for information about where they should go to stay.
Families with young children came and went from the Dublin office for appointments.
Construction workers continued work to secure large fencing that now lines Mount Street in a bid to block people from trying to set up tents again on the pathways.
“They said it was full. I don’t know where to go.”
Tedros on trying to get accommodation in Citywest
Ghine from Afghanistan told the Irish Sun that he has been sleeping on Mount Street for the past three days after arriving in Ireland from France.
He said: “Before there were tents but now there is nothing and nowhere to go. They say they are having trouble trying to find places and that there are people waiting longer than us so we just have to wait.
“I don’t know where to sleep tonight, maybe in the park.”
Tapiwa from Zimbabwe told the Irish Sun that he had travelled to Ireland via South Africa and has been here since December 21.
‘Stick to their word’
He has spent time on the Mount Street camp and in other parts of the city but was disappointed that the International Protection Office did not inform asylum seekers that there were places available this week.
He said: “I am a guest so I accept what is on the ground for us. I appreciate it but I would like if they stick to their word.
“We were told we would get an email or call as soon as there was accommodation available but I didn’t get any contact. I was not here when the buses left.”
Tapiwa did not know where he was going to sleep last night and said he would wait to see where others outside the IPO went later because “there is safety in numbers.”
