Harris says asylum law ‘needs to change’ due to increased arrivals from NI

DUBLIN: Immigration laws will “need to change” due to increasing numbers of asylum seekers crossing the border from Northern Ireland, the Taoiseach has said.

Simon Harris said a “bigger percentage” of arrivals to the International Protection Office had come across the border in recent months.

He said this raised “very serious issues” which would require legislative change, as he said Irish officials needed to collaborate more with UK and NI counterparts.

It comes after Irish Minister for Justice Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee that more than 80 per cent of international protection applicants in Ireland are now travelling through Northern Ireland.

Mr Harris said: “It’s definitely true to say, and I’ve discussed this with the minister, that this has become a much bigger percentage in recent months.”He said he wondered if the trend was a result of the State being “more effective” at imposing restrictons on other entry points.

The Taoiseach added that there was a need for the State to constantly be “agile and flexible” to changing trends and flows of arrivals. Asked about the increase in arrivals from Northern Ireland, he said: “It’s going to require legislative change.

“We’re going to need to change the law, in my view, in relation to this and we’re going to need to change it very quickly.” He said Ireland needed provisions to return people to the UK if they already have status there.

“Our migration system is about people fleeing persecution, it’s not about a situation where you can be living safely in another country – have status potentially in that country – and then come to our country and seek immigration status”. Mr Harris said legislating in the area was “not simple”.

He said it would not be a situation where people would be stopped crossing the “porous” border with Northern Ireland, which he said was valued by people on the island.“The open border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is something very important to people on this Island.” Mr Harris noted that Ms Mc McEntee would meet the UK Home Secretary James Cleverly next week as he said there was a need for greater cooperation between Northern Irish, British and Irish officials and police services.

The Taoiseach also appeared to criticise Sinn Fein’s policy on migration, after the party posted a social media video on Wednesday in which it said it opposes “open borders”.

Mr Harris said that recent comments by opposition parties are “very worrying and very peculiar”. He said “flippant remarks and social media videos” about borders should cause concern, adding: “I would have expected better, quite frankly.

“What we don’t need is right-wing Tory rhetoric, what we do need is effective solutions.. “And what that means is greater cooperation and collaboration between the gardai and the PSNI, between the Justice Minister and the British Home Secretary.”

Asked about the amount of people the State had forcibly exited from the country following a deportation order, Mr Harris said it was not in Ireland’s interests to physically deport all rejected asylum seekers.