"Migrants going to Ireland," states Rishi Sunak PM

I agree @bombastix that the CTA means v little to most English people and it’s not something anyone will rise up to defend. It is mostly one way traffic and benefits the Irish and Brits with Irish hereditary that travel back and forth a lot but really that’s it. I love the CTA and really hope it stays but the Irish government are foolish to think it’s sone trump card as most people in U.K. will go meh!
that’s not how I feel but i mentioned it to my colleagues today in diverse London and no body knew it was a thing less still cared about it.
irish influence in london is not what it was even 10 years ago ( sadly imo)

@Evanna13 yes but this matters. It will mean any domestic law changes are useless. Ireland would have to ask the EU to step in. If there is no active commitment on returns between the UK and Ireland, and I mean a legally binding one then that is all that can be done.

My suspicion is that this issue was probably on a list of things to look at post Brexit and never has been.

If I am right on that, I think Ireland would need to ask the EU for help or do what it might have to anyway, which is make returns directly to a country of origin or another EU jurisdiction.

Thanks I totally agree. I have been horrified by the way UK (mostly English) governments (and Kings) have behaved in relation to Ireland. I think (hope) we can agree on that.

You still need the agreement of the safe country to return people, in the same way we can’t just return to France

I agree with pp that the 100 Gardai is just for show

Ireland said the UK is not safe. These immigrants are taking their life in their own hands travelling through our land to their chosen destination.

Most of them get on a plane from the EU to Dublin and then throw their passports away.

3/4 of all recent immigrants in Ireland are Ukrainian.

According to the Irish Central Statistics Office, in the year up to April 2023 Ireland had 141,600 immigrants.

42,000 were Ukrainians.
29,600 were Irish citizens returning to Ireland
26,100 were EU citizens
4,800 were UK citizens
39,100 were from the rest of the world with the largest numbers being from India and Brazil.

Approx 64,000 people emigrated from Ireland.
The population increased by 97,600
The "natural" population increase was 20,000 (55,500 births, 35,500 deaths), the rest was due to immigration.

I don't think the UK government care about breaking any legal commitments anyway!
We have had years of this with Brexit.

Harris! No offence intended. Simon Harris not Hall.

The thing that gets me is we have a housing shortage in Ireland, we have a shortage of tradespeople, we have strapping young men(and women) coming to Ireland looking to live and work. Is the answer not obvious? We train them up(if they want to obviously), they earn a great wage, everybody gets houses, we all live happily ever after. Obviously it would take a few years to get things in proper motion, training takes time but tradespeople earn great salaries, they could set up their own businesses eventually if they wanted, they could really thrive and we solve our worker and housing crisis. Is this being encouraged already? I know I'm being very simplistic but it seems like a good idea to me 🤷🏻‍♀️

What I notice is something a little different from the standard posturing. Simon Hall says he had a good discussion with Rishi Sunak. But everything from that point onwards looks very negative; from the cancelling of the meeting, to the headlines now, and finally, the statement that Ireland expects the UK to honour its CTA commitment.

Logic suggests that actually it's not so clear cut. If the CTA deals with this unambiguously then Simon Hall would have an excellent point. But actually, I don't think it does say that. And I think that is the real problem because the UK can just say no and will not be breaking an actual legal commitment. It may be breaking a diplomatic commitment and that is different

The UK government are not willing to take their fair share of immigrants and are leaving it to Ireland to clean up their mess.

You are very happy to support this?

Yes as I said there are a minority who do not support immigration and an increase in racist attacks and protests. This is sad to see.

However the vast majority of people are willing to take our fair share of immigrants. The UK GOVT are not willing to do so and are leaving it to Ireland to deal with...

Completely tokenistic to look like the government are "doing" something

Ms McEntee said she remains firm on the figure that 80% of asylum seekers coming into the country are coming from the UK via Northern Ireland across the border.

There is a lot of political football going on and we shouldn't get dragged into it. Rishi is using the figure to suggest his Rwanda policy is working. The Irish government want the figure reduced so are reenacting an existing agreement with Britain:
The Government insists it is simply restoring an agreement it had with Britain since 2020 which allows people to be returned. This was a post-Brexit agreement which was underpinned by the Common Travel Area.

Each country wants to demonstrate to their electorate that they are on top of the migration issue and have robust systems in place and are closing any loophole that is found.

Regardless of who the politicians are in charge, Ireland and UK civil servants do have a very good working relationship and are well able to plough through the rhetoric of their governments and work effectively together on a solution.

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2024/0430/1446420-cabinet-migration-legislation/

I’m afraid Ireland is no different to every other European country on this issue,

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-41333938.html

I had a look, I’m not sure how an asylum migrant can be returned by an officer without processing, so I’m not sure what they’ll do

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/gardai-to-be-deployed-to-border-with-northern-ireland-amid-row-with-uk-over-asylum-seekers/a1762467432.html

I am very sorry you feel this way. I have been very careful in all my posts to be clear that it is the UK government policies which have impacted Ireland so badly. I even made a specific post stating that I know a large number of British people do not support those policies and are not to blame. I want to be very clear about this.

I think sometimes we Irish can be quick to blame the English. But of course at an individual level we know that not every English person is to blame.

However it cannot be denied that UK government policies have been devastating to Ireland and this continues to this day. This will only continue as the UK continues to isolate itself from its nearest neighbours.

100 officers is peanuts and in hundreds of years this border has been a sieve. If the British couldn't police it during the war it won't happen now unless Ireland want a hard border and throw everything at it. What a farce

Yes that's why we can place them there - close to the 'border'

You listening Rishi?

Rishi said “some” migrants are going to Ireland due to Rwanda policy and Irish press reports support that. Why are you demanding numbers from him? He didn’t make any claims about numbers.

No idea I can't find any information that any officers have been sent there

@elevens24 can you provide a link to this claim?

I’m aware that’s the issue. I’m asking what these extra 100 officers will do?

Do you know?

There are no border police between Ireland and Northern Ireland!!! Did you miss the whole hard border debate of a couple of years ago?

No, I am not suggesting that racism is not a problem in Ireland. This is why I was careful to state that the VAST majority of Irish people are supportive of taking our fair share of asylum seekers. However there are a minority who are not supportive and this rightly makes the news. I hate to see any racist attacks or protests and they are unfortunately becoming more common. I think a lot of it is fear especially about large groups of unvetted men.

However immigration has brought a lot of benefits to Ireland. As a race we were forced to migrate all across the world and I think this gives us a lot of empathy towards immigrants. As Imelda May says "You don't get to be Irish and racist". Look up her poem if you are interested.

To do what though?

We have border police we still have to process asylum claims as people arrive, everyone does