McEntee 'stands over' claim that 80% of asylum seekers coming from North

James Cox

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said she "stands over" the figure that 80 per cent of asylum seekers arriving here have crossed the border from the North.

There has been confusion after Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the figure wasn't "statistical", with suggestions that ministers are contradicting each other.

Ms McEntee told a Dáil debate on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact today that Ireland needs to opt into the agreement, because "going it alone" hasn't worked for other countries.

She also defended her remarks about how many asylum seekers have entered the Republic from the North.

"We ask people where they come from, and they tell you. If they don't have a bus ticket, or a plane ticket, we can't verify, but we know the information that's provided to our teams.

"Similarly, if somebody says they have come directly from Nigeria, there are no direct flights from Nigeria, but we can't confirm or deny that. People have to look at the information that they have.

"They are the ones interviewing these people, they know where they come from, and they're able to give me that information. That's where that figure [80 per cent from Northern Ireland] has come from, and I absolutely stand over that."

Ms McEntee has linked the numbers of refugees coming over the border to the passing of the UK’s Safety of Rwanda Act.

This has led to tensions with the British government, and UK prime minister Rishi Sunak again commented on the situation on Wednesday.

In the UK House of Commons, Mr Sunak said: “Now, it’s no surprise that our robust approach to illegal migration is providing a deterrent, but the answer is not sending police to villages in Donegal. It’s to work with us in partnership to strengthen our external borders all around the Common Travel Area that we share.”

Meanwhile, an encampment of homeless refugees, described as a 'tent city', outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street, Dublin, was cleared on Wednesday.

The people who had been sleeping rough in Mount Street were offered accommodation in Crooksling or City West