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Ireland’s prime minister has insisted the UK must respect an existing arrangement between the two countries to take back asylum seekers.
Simon Harris told Sky News the UK must honour a deal that has been in place since 2020 as a row escalates over the Irish government’s new plans to return to the UK asylum seekers who cross the border into the Republic from Northern Ireland.
Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week that more than 80% of recent arrivals in Ireland came via the land border with Northern Ireland.
The UK government has said it will not take back asylum seekers who cross the border into Ireland “until the EU accepts that we can send them back to France”.
The number of migrants crossing the English Channel from the continent in small boats during the first four months of the year reached its highest ever level at the weekend.
On Tuesday morning, Irish PM Mr Harris told Sky News: “There is already an agreement in place between Ireland and Britain since 2020.
“What we’re doing is giving legal clarity in relation to that agreement which will allow us to designate the UK as a safe country again.
“It’s also very important for people in Britain to understand that this is a two-way agreement.
“This is to ensure that refugees can be sent in both directions if their application is inadmissible.
“We also have a legitimate expectation that agreements between our two countries are honoured.”
Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said there are “operational arrangements” between the UK and Ireland but insisted there is “not a legal obligation to accept the return of asylum seekers and under those operational arrangements no asylum seekers have been returned to the UK”.
“It’s up to the UK government who we do and do not accept into the country,” he added.
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