Relations between London and Dublin have taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent days. Ireland blames British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office for the alleged collateral effects of the UK-Rwanda Agreement, which aims to deport asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK to the East African country. On Tuesday, April 30, the Irish government approved an emergency bill aimed at facilitating the return to the UK of asylum seekers arriving in the Republic of Ireland from Northern Ireland (still a British province).

Such is the tension between the two countries that the Irish authorities are talking about the need to monitor the almost 500 kilometers of border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This is even though Dublin battled throughout the Brexit negotiations, between 2016 and 2019, to keep this border completely virtual.

It all began with a figure put forward by Helen McEntee, Ireland's justice minister, at a hearing of the Irish parliament's justice committee on April 23. Some "80% of asylum seekers" arriving in Ireland come from the UK via Belfast, the minister stated. They are taking advantage of the Common Travel Area (CTA), a specific free movement agreement between Ireland and the UK, McEntee said, adding that a record 5,000 people had applied for asylum in the Republic since the beginning of 2024.

Instead of applying for asylum when they arrive at an Irish airport or port from another European, African or Asian country, these people present themselves at the International Protection Office (IPO), in the heart of Dublin city. Emergency accommodation for them is so saturated that dozens of them are sleeping in tents set up in the streets adjacent to the IPO.

Sunak seized the opportunity, welcoming the figure put forward by McEntee as proof that the UK-Rwanda Agreement is already having the hoped-for "deterrent effect." According to him, people arriving in Ireland via Belfast are fleeing the prospect of being deported by the British authorities to Rwanda. On April 25, Sunak finally got Westminster to pass the Safety of Rwanda Act, which should make the controversial agreement with Kigali operational, as it is currently still virtual two years after being signed.

Dublin's response was swift and acid on Sunday, with Simon Harris, leader of the centrist Fine Gael party and Ireland's taoiseach (prime minister) for the past month, saying Ireland will "not provide a loophole for anybody else's migration challenges." "We're not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesn't accept returns back to France, where illegal migrants are coming from," retorted Sunak the following day, adding that he was "not interested" in a migrant return agreement with Dublin.

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