Rishi Sunak warns Ireland against sending police to patrol the border for illegal migrants

Rishi Sunak warned Ireland against sending police to patrol the border for illegal migrants as the row between the two countries deepened last night.

The Prime Minister said the government in Dublin must keep its promise to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after it announced 100 Gardai officers would take on immigration enforcement duties.

His Irish counterpart Simon Harris was forced to make clear that there would be no police checkpoints.

But he repeated his claim that there is a legally-binding agreement between the two governments to return failed asylum-seekers, something No 10 has disputed.

As the war of words continued between the leaders, the Irish authorities stepped in to remove hundreds of migrants from a makeshift ‘tent city’ around the International Protection Office where they have to register on arrival in Dublin.

Some of those sleeping rough on the streets of the capital are known to have first crossed the Channel to England before travelling to Ireland to avoid being deported to Rwanda.

Unionist MP Carla Lockhart used Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday to accuse the Irish government of ‘hypocrisy’ for asking police to patrol the border for asylum-seekers despite having fought against checks in post-Brexit trade talks.

Mr Sunak replied: ‘The House will be aware that we have made commitments to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. The hon. Lady makes a very important point that the Irish Government must uphold their promises, too. We cannot have cherry-picking of important international agreements.’

He said Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was ‘seeking urgent clarification that there will be no disruption or police checkpoints at or near the border’.

The PM added: ‘It is no surprise that our robust approach to illegal migration is providing a deterrent, but the answer is not to send police to villages in Donegal but to work with us in partnership to strengthen our external borders all around the common travel area that we share.’

He also repeated his insistence that the United Kingdom ‘has no legal obligation to accept returns of illegal migrants from Ireland’.

The Taioseach later said there ‘of course won’t be’ police checkpoints on the border.

He insisted he was ‘not getting involved in British politics’ but went on: ‘I very much welcome the British Prime Minister’s comments in relation to the importance of countries upholding agreements.

‘We’ll uphold the agreement we have with Britain under the common travel area, the standard operating procedure that we have in place.

‘I also welcome the comments of the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, where he referred to the importance of the two countries working together to protect the common travel area from abuses.’

Mr Harris added that a total of 268 people had been moved, by Gardai, council staff and health workers, from the encampment in Mount Street to state-provided accommodation including a hotel and ‘robust’ tents elsewhere.