Tension grows in Ireland amid migrant influx from UK

A tent in Dublin.

Ireland’s government has moved to remove tents occupied by asylum seekers in Dublin.

After many weeks of concern about their conditions, the area around the International Protection office in the Irish capital was cleared.

The move however simply saw asylum seekers move 200 metres down the road to a nearby canal due to a scarcity of accommodation.

Ireland has recently seen an influx of people seeking international protection from the UK, with asylum seekers coming across the open border with Northern Ireland.

London’s controversial plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda has caused some to flee to Ireland.

Khyber, from Afghanistan, says he came to Dublin because he fears being deported to the West African country from the UK.

Irish authorities informed him there is no accommodation in Dublin at present, meaning he and others will have to continue to live in tents without proper food and sanitary provisions.

“They tell us we don’t have any accommodation for the moment so, we will just wait. We don’t know when they will provide us with accommodation, so, at the moment, we just stay in the tents,” he said.

The Irish Government has said it has plans to change legislation in the coming weeks, giving it the legal authority to return illegal immigrants to the UK.

However, there are doubts changing the law will change the reality on the ground.

“Well it’s entirely academic in circumstances where the United Kingdom says they won’t take people back unless France also takes people back from the United Kingdom,” says member of the Irish Parliament and qualified lawyer Michael McNamara.

“It’s certainly workable to fix the flaws in the legislation that were identified by the Irish High Court but it’s academic if nobody is going to be transferred, which is the current situation.”