A Conservative MP has said that the Rwanda scheme is already bearing fruit, after Ireland warned of an influx of migrants from the UK.
Ireland’s deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin has said the deportation policy is spreading “impacting on Ireland” as immigrants arriving in Ireland reached a 16-year high.
In the year leading up to April 2023, more than 140,000 immigrants arrived in Britain’s neighbouring country.
More than 80% of recent asylum seekers have crossed the border into Ireland from the UK.
The republic’s Central Statistics Office published figures showing net inward migration of 77,600, a whopping 50% increase on the previous year.
Mr Martin said the UK’s hardline immigration policy is already “impacting on Ireland” as people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.
He added: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have”.
However Conservative MP Marco Longhi has now suggested the comments by Ireland’s deputy PM are a major victory for the UK Government.
Mr Longhi, a Red Wall MP who serves on the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: “The fact that asylum seekers are now starting to go elsewhere is clear evidence that the deterrent effect is taking place”.
Meanwhile a source close to Home Secretary James Cleverly told the Telegraph: “The message of the Rwanda partnership is ‘if you want to come to the UK, and you do so illegally, you will not get to stay in the UK’. That is the point of a deterrent”.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice added: “Oh the irony of the Irish Republic whining about the very border arrangement they insisted upon with the Protocol”.
“Truth is, as usual, Irish leaders blame Brexit for all their own failings.”
Micheál Martin warned that asylum seekers are now seeking “sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda”.
He said: “We have 11 million people displaced from Ukraine and millions in Sudan.
“The sort of knee-jerk reaction like the Rwanda policy, in my view, isn’t going to really do anything to deal with the issue.”
