Oireachtas

Numbers seeking asylum in Ireland would rise if EU migration pact rejected, McEntee says

Minister stands over 80% border crossing figure as Rural Independents claim State now effectively a ‘colonial outpost of an EU regulatory empire’

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said the State's migration system is not working because the law governing it was enacted in a different time. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Marie O'Halloran
Wed May 1 2024 - 14:13

Ireland cannot manage migration on its own and the numbers seeking protection in the State would “most certainly increase” if the European Migration and Asylum Pact is rejected, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said.

The Minister also reiterated that 80 per cent of asylum applicants were arriving in the State via Northern Ireland following an apparent contradiction by Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who said the claim was not based on data.

“The issue of the 80 per cent, this is the clear evidence and the information that my team has given me,” she said, adding that they know how many people have come through airports and how many turn up at the International Protection Office.

Ms McEntee said the current migration system is not working because the law governing it was enacted when there were 3,500 international protection applicants a year, compared to 13,000 people last year. “So it’s not realistic to present this as an issue which would simply disappear if we chose not to engage with it or indeed not to opt into the pact.”

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The Minister said the challenges presented by immigration “cannot be wished away” and “cannot be addressed in a globalised world by any state acting alone”.

The Government in March approved a proposal to opt-in to measures in the pact to change the way those seeking asylum are processed. This includes a greater focus on efficient returns for unsuccessful applicants and accelerated processing for those from what are deemed to be safe countries or those with false or no documents. The pact also provides for the creation of asylum camps at or near airports and fingerprinting of those seeking protection, including children.

Ms McEntee said if Ireland did not opt into the agreement, the State would be unable to access “burden sharing mechanisms” and would find it harder to return unsuccessful applicants to their country of origin. She said nothing was being forced on Ireland as “we have been part of these negotiations for eight years”.

Rural Independent TD Carol Nolan, who introduced a motion opposing the pact and calling for a referendum on the issue, said Ireland is “in effect, a colonial outpost of an EU regulatory empire”.

“The EU and its endless procession of directives and regulations have smothered democracy in this State,” she said, adding that some 70 per cent of Irish legislation came from the EU.

The Laois-Offaly TD highlighted cases where asylum seekers were being accommodated in areas without engagement with local people and said communities “feel an absolute sense of loss of control”. She said even “peaceful efforts” to ask questions or raise concerns were “being framed as borderline criminal”.

The former Sinn Féin TD expressed concern over an “expected influx of between 15,000 and 20,000 international protection applicants annually over the next few years”.

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae said there were between 700,000 and 1.2 million undocumented migrants in Britain and warned that if a fraction of that number were to migrate to Ireland it would collapse the system and other wraparound services.

Labour TD Aodhán Ó Riordáin said Mr Healy-Rae had criticised the amount being spent on international protection despite the Kerry TD having received some €660,000 for accommodating Ukrainian refugees.

He said it was legitimate to ask questions about asylum but “it is not legitimate to dehumanise those who come here seeking sanctuary”.

“It is not legitimate to link criminality with immigration. It is not legitimate to talk about loss of culture. It is not legitimate to talk about colonisation. It is not legitimate to equate An Garda Síochána with the B Specials.”

Independent TD Marian Harkin said that people who asked questions about the Government’s asylum process were being compared to far-right activists and “lumped in with the deplorables”.

Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow John Brady, whose party opposes the pact, said his local community was lied to about the true intent regarding the use of Riverview House at Trudder for asylum accommodation.

He said mismanagement by the Government had undermined public representatives in the area, contributed to the chaos that ensued and similar has happened across the country.

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith said that in the three pages of the Independents’ motion there was “not a single mention of the causes and reasons” why people came to Ireland, which included war, famine and climate change.

She said the Independents’ uphold their “own Christian values constantly in this House” but were scaremongering that men of colour are a danger to women and children. She said this led to “dangerous behaviour”. She said it was “mad” to think that if Ireland deported every asylum seeker in the morning crises in housing, health and other areas would go away.

Ms Smith said “these crises are not created by refugees or asylum seekers” but were the product of decades of rule by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”. She said her party would vote against the pact because it created more spaces like Libya where “we create slave camps and pay countries to hold on to migrants to stop them crossing the Mediterranean and then allow them to be raped, abused and treated as slaves”.

Rural Independent TD Mattie McGrath said he made no apologies for bringing this motion and said the Government had refused to debate the issue.

He said it was nonsense to suggest that not opting into the pact would make Ireland a more attractive destination for asylum seekers. He said Ireland’s “gross incompetence in addressing migration has become an international embarrassment” and the Government was blaming others and “gaslighting” the public when they asked any questions.

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran

Marie O'Halloran is Parliamentary Correspondent of The Irish Times

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