Facing increasing pressures on its shared border with Northern Ireland and sharply rising asylum requests, Ireland has ramped up border controls and deportations.
Growing Crackdown on Immigration in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Recent reports reveal increasing immigration restrictions in Ireland, following a spike in irregular arrivals from the UK via Northern Ireland. According to the BBC, in the past year asylum applications in Ireland have gone up by almost 300 percent, driven in part by post-Brexit regulations and deportation threats in the UK.
Ireland has responded by intensifying border controls and ramping up deportations. According to the news outlet, so far more than 2,000 irregular migrants have been issued deportation orders this year and the government plans to step up deportations in the coming months. “If they don’t have status to be in Ireland, we bring them to Dublin. They’re removed on a ferry back to the UK on the same day,” says the head of the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
The CEO of the Irish Refugee Council said that the government “is only able to provide accommodation through private contractors. That, coupled with an increase in the number of people seeking protection in Ireland, and against the background of a housing crisis has meant, in effect, that Ireland’s asylum reception system has really collapsed.” Anti-immigrant sentiment has become a persistent problem, culminating in violent riots in Dublin. Observers say that a combination of state failures in social investment, far-right mobilisation on social media and structural racism are factors which contributed to the eruption of violence in Ireland’s capital city.
Ireland also joined other European countries–including Germany, France, Belgium and Italy–in pausing asylum procedures for Syrians following the fall of the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad. “I really welcome the end of the Assad regime,” said Helen McEntee, Minister for Justice, “What I’ve done simply is pause any decision-making on the basis that it is uncertain as to what the situation may be in the weeks ahead.”
Meanwhile in Northern Ireland …
Recent reports reveal that immigration officials in neighbouring Northern Ireland have arrested and detained hundreds of people trying to get into Britain. Reportedly, this route has been increasingly used as a safer option than crossing the English Channel on small boats.
Smuggling gangs have been said to be exploiting the Common Travel Area (CTA) while using Belfast as a “backdoor” entrance into the Republic. The CTA allows British and Irish citizens to travel without the need for passports between Ireland, Great Britain, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands.
Last April, the UK Home Office launched a campaign called Operation Comby in a joint effort with the Irish Garda Siochána to crack down on people smugglers in the CTA. The Guardian reports that the operation led to 35 arrests in Ireland and the UK over three days, in addition to 59 arrests and 12 detentions during two previous Comby exercises earlier this year.
Controversial Detention Practices and Asylum Procedures in Ireland
The GDP has previously brought attention to the controversial practice of placing migrants and asylum seekers in prisons and police stations, including the opening of a new detention facility at Dublin Airport–which according to ECRE has been fully operational since May 2022. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture raised serious concerns regarding abuses and episodes of bullying against migrants within the Irish prison system. Moreover, in September 2020, reports disclosed an outbreak of Covid-19 in Dublin prisons used to hold immigration detainees.
According to a recent AIDA Country Report on Ireland, an ongoing accommodation crisis in the country has pushed many temporary protection (TP) applicants to homelessness, while others have been denied accommodation upon arrival–especially single male applicants. The AIDA report highlights growing concerns about accelerated asylum procedures, which are leaving many applicants uninformed about their rights to seek free legal advice and unable to access assistance due to the limited timeframe available between their application and the interview.
Also according to the report, Ireland’s High Court has “ruled that the State’s failure to provide accommodation, food and basic hygiene facilities to newly arrived applicants was unlawful and breached their right to dignity.” This adds to concerns over a substantial deterioration of accommodation standards, including overcrowded living conditions, risks to personal safety, health, and well-being, as well as lack of access to public services.
