An apparently off-the-cuff remark by the Minister for Justice has led to an intemperate squabble with the UK government and surely played into the decision to remove migrants camped outside the Office of International Protection on Mount Street in Dublin. The dismantling of the camp yesterday morning was done despite the likelihood that many of the migrants will try and return to the city centre.
Futile is too small a word to describe the shambolic politics on display on both sides of the Irish Sea. Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is an experienced politician, and it strains credibility to believe that she accidentally said the quiet part out loud regarding many asylum seekers crossing the Irish border at the Oireachtas justice committee last week.
Likewise, Micheál Martin has a well-deserved reputation for being calm and measured, but the Tánaiste choose to double down on McEntee’s comments, linking the rise in numbers crossing the Irish border to the UK’s policy of sending migrants to Rwanda.
If the Government was looking for a row on the issue they found a willing counterpart in UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. He leapt on Martin’s comments, which he interpreted as proof the Rwanda plan was already working, despite no flights to the African country having left the tarmac. Sunak did his bit to up the ante, saying the UK would not take migrants back from Ireland unless France did the same for the UK.
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A couple of cancelled intergovernmental ministerial meetings later the row appears to be calming. Officials are left trying to square the Taoiseach’s promise to pass and implement legislation that would allow Ireland to send migrants back to the UK with the realities of the common travel area, an open border and the need to have a functional relationship with the UK.
Both sides seem to have lost sight early on of the fact that an agreement on the very issue of migrant return was reached in 2020, although not activated. Low-key dialogue based on this agreement would have been the way to try to resolve the issue because – despite any short-term political gain from talking tough ahead of elections – it is not in the longer-term interest of either country to be seen to be playing ping-pong with migrants on the border. Instead the import of this original agreement is now itself in dispute.
If all this was meant to signal that the Coalition under Simon Harris has adopted a more robust approach to migration it was a mistake, both tactically and strategically. The Government has been left looking impotent.
The absence of a longer-term strategy will only encourage those looking to capitalise on immigration for their own ends. And it will continue to leave many asylum seekers in limbo and without adequate supports.