Arguably Anglo-Irish relations have reached their lowest point in many years. Of all the issues that could have set back relations between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, it is not likely many would have suggested a divide would open over asylum seekers.
How this has come about is comments from the Irish political establishment regarding the United Kingdom governments Rwanda Plan, a plan to send asylum seekers to the third country of Rwanda while their asylum claim is processed. Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Michael Martin said, ““So, they’re leaving the UK and they are taking opportunities to come to Ireland, crossing the border to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda.”
In response the Irish government, facing an influx of asylum seekers into the Republic of Ireland, through the soft border of Northern Ireland plans to return asylum seekers to the United Kingdom by designating the UK as a safe country. To date Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dismissed the idea of accepting refugees by disputing the UK has any ‘’legal obligation’’ to do so. Even so the Irish government has a “legitimate expectation” that an existing November 2020 agreement on the return of asylum seekers between the two countries would be upheld.
While the spat between both the UK and Irish government continues the context for support of a Rwanda Scheme in the Republic is around 40%, according to the latest Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks poll. Where do the Liberal Democrats come into this?, it is plausible the Irish government will have to drop it’s objection to joining the UK government offer to join the Rwanda Scheme. Joining would signal Ireland’s move away from humane liberal values.
While the Irish government denies the prospect of joining the Rwanda Scheme, it is not as farfetched as one thinks. Public support is significant for such a move and something similar is actually the idea of the European grouping the lead party of government Fine Gael is part of. European People’s Party policy states, “We will conclude agreements with third countries to ensure that asylum seekers can also be granted protection in a civilised and safe way. We want to implement the concept of safe third countries,”.
If Ireland wants to work with the UK to take back asylum seekers, the UK holds the leverage and the Republic cannot really go running to the European Union for an alternative. The only other choices will have to come through a changed make up of the United Kingdom’s government which the Liberal Democrats could be part of or bring about in some form if Labour falls short in the seats required to form an administration.
Liberal Democrats, if you want to help Ireland avoid another shameful moment in its history, please stick by your intentions of scrapping the Rwanda Scheme. Together both nations can uphold their commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and UN Refugee Convention and keep light where darkness could prevail.
* Shane Burke a social liberal, living in the Republic of Ireland, who generally follows the Liberal Democrats when it comes to UK politics.
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11 Comments
>” the Irish government, facing an influx of asylum seekers into the Republic of Ireland”
I seem to remember, before Rwanda, it was observed Brexit made Ireland an obvious route of entry into the UK…
Those asylum seekers travelling through that soft border – are miniscule compared to those that the Irish Government has accepted over the last few years… Communities have become unrecognisable in such a short period of time..
Those tented camps are never a good look for governments . As ever politicians can’t bring themselves to make those difficult decisions and prefer to deflect the blame elsewhere…
My father left Ireland in 1935, in the middle of the Anglo-Irish Economic War. I now have my Irish passport and can benefit from the 1962 love-in between German Chancellor Adenauer and French President De Gaulle and the great benefits of the European Union, through which I travel and learn.
Our motto should be loud and clear: ‘Scrap Rwanda, scrap Brexit, work with Europe, trade with Europe.’
Driving through Germany for family and work reasons 8 times a year, I see their fight against global warming – solar panels lining their autobahns and wind-turbines standing proud above their countryside. In the UK, nothing.
@ John Waller,
“Scrap Rwanda….”
I’m not sure the good people of Rwanda would want this! But, if you mean the agreement to deport refugees there, I can agree.
“…..scrap Brexit….”
Short of inventing a time machine, you can’t actually scrap something that has already occurred.
“……work with Europe, trade with Europe.’
This does mean working and trading with the Russians, most of whom do live in Europe. I would have expected you might be aware of the poliis problematic at the the moment. However, I think you might mean the EU. We should work and trade with these countries too of course as we
Sorry that last comment somehow shot off before I was finished!
The last part should read:
I would have expected you might be aware of the political problems with that at the moment. However, I think you might mean the EU. We should work and trade with these countries too of course. Just as we always have done.
@John Waller. I would imagine one reason you don’t see so many wind turbines in the UK is we tend to go for offshore wind farms (we have a lot more very windy sea than Germany!) Germany also still produces a lot of electricity from coal – which the UK has largely already stopped doing, so it’s not a simple case of Germany=good, UK=bad, even while accepting that we could and should do a lot more.
@ John Weller,
According to the link below Germany generates 20.8% of its energy from renewables whereas Norway (not in the EU) manages 75.8%. So beware of the “Greenwashing” effect of visible wind turbines.
I appreciate that it’s a lot easier for Norway because it has abundant hydro power and a low population but nevertheless it does illustrate the point that not everything is about the EU.
It’s not actually about what might be classed as ‘renewable’ in any case. It’s more about CO2 emissions and the question of whether nuclear power should be classed as ‘green’ despite emissions of CO2 associated with nuclear being very low.
The French and Germans, both in the EU, take a different line on that.
It would have been good if the article could have included the UK too. I just Googled how the UK compared and it came up with 44% which I found surprising. Maybe that’s not comparing like with like? I would expect that we are doing similarly to Germany.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/01/03/sweden-portugal-luxembourg-which-eu-countries-use-the-most-and-least-renewable-energy
@John Waller – “ In the UK, nothing”
Don’t know where you’ve been travelling but there are an increasing number of wind and solar farms visible from the M1, M6, M5, A14 plus there are the large east coast off shore arrays….
But large a installations of solar/wind are not the best way forward, smaller local arrays are much better.
Roland, last June I saw 2 small wind clusters of 6 turbines and 1 old larger with more than 12 between London to Newcastle on my way to the Arctic where sea ice will soon disappear. Global Warming is happening in the Mediterranean NOW and is the final subject in my latest book.
Simon, Germany was on its way to get ridding of coal-fired power stations but Russian gas through the Baltic stopped. Clusters of 12 turbines can be seen all the way from Bavaria to Cologne and along its border with the Netherlands. New offshore wind farms, UK’s preferred option, take longer to deliver.
Today’s Guardian says: ‘Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds’.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature
Martin, my comment on LDV last October was: ‘our two big issues are Climate Change and Brexit’. With the local elections over, please can we go public on these.
Roland 8th May ’24 – 1:43am:
I seem to remember, before Rwanda, it was observed Brexit made Ireland an obvious route of entry into the UK…
Brexit makes no difference. Both the UK and Ireland agreed to maintain the Common Travel Area (for people, not goods) and both the UK and Ireland remain outside Schengen (hence the need for passport checks on crossing from France to the UK and vice versa).
While Ireland and the UK need to work together on asylum and other matters, the former is primarily a member of the eu. Asylum seekers can request asylum wherever they are, assuming they have arrived legally. It is only by improving the uk’s asylum procedures that this situation can be improved.