A Northern Ireland unionist party leader has said Ireland’s insistence on keeping the border open after Brexit has led to an influx of migrants.
It comes as Ireland’s deputy prime minister Micheál Martin has blamed the Rwanda plan for an increase in asylum seekers entering his country from Northern Ireland.
However, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice Jim Allister said it was not the Rwanda Plan but Ireland’s insistence on keeping the border open after Brexit that was to blame.
Allister is an outspoken opponent of Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal for Northern Ireland which he says puts the region’s place in the UK at risk.
Jim Allister was speaking following a protest in Newtownmountkennedy against a rise in asylum seekers
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He told The Telegraph: “You reap what you sow. The Republic of Ireland insisted there wouldn’t even be a camera allowed on the international frontier and now they lament the consequences of the open border they demanded.
“It’s hard to find sympathy for those so driven by their all-Ireland agenda and poking the British over Brexit that they insisted on the very thing now swamping them with immigrants.”
The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is effectively open, with no immigration checks, a key condition of the deal that took Britain out of the EU in 2020.
Earlier this week, Ireland’s Minister of Justice Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee she estimates that more than 80 per cent of people applying for asylum in Ireland are coming from Britain over the land border with Northern Ireland.
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Irish Tanaiste Micheal Martin spoke out against the Rwanda scheme
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Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin said: “I believe the Rwanda effect is impacting on Ireland
“I don’t think anyone’s gone to Rwanda yet, but to me it’s reflective of a policy…But it is having real impact on Ireland now in terms of people being fearful in the UK – maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”
Tensions over asylum seekers have been bubbling this week over increase in migrant numbers and an ongoing housing crisis.
On Thursday, police arrested six people after officers came under attack from a group of protesters at a site earmarked for asylum seekers in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow.
A barrier is erected next to Garda at a closed road in Newtownmountkennedy after protests near Trudder House
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Power-sharing was restored in Northern Ireland after negotiations ended a two-year boycott of Stormont by the DUP over the Irish Sea border.
It comes after the TUV formed an election alliance with Reform UK as they fear the deal is a precursor to an attempt to unify Ireland.
Sinn Fein has called for a reunification referendum by 2030.
