London's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda has many already inside the UK fearing for their safety, leading many to cross the Irish border.
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00:00 These were the scenes in Dublin recently as government agencies moved in to remove tents occupied by asylum seekers.
00:07 After many weeks of evolving unhygienic conditions, the area around the International Protection Office was cleared much to the delight of local residents.
00:17 The action by agencies of the Irish state, however, simply saw asylum seekers move 200 metres down the road to the nearby Grand Canal due to a scarcity of accommodation.
00:27 The influx of people seeking refuge in the Republic of Ireland from the UK has been exacerbated by the fact that Ireland has an open border with Northern Ireland, which is in the UK.
00:38 Khyber from Afghanistan says he is in Dublin because of his fear that if he resides in the UK, he will be deported to Rwanda.
00:47 I was supposed to stay in the UK but there was a Rwanda plan problem which is very difficult for migrants to accept that and which is very fearful for every asylum.
01:05 So I just came to Ireland.
01:08 According to Khyber, the Irish authorities have told him there is no accommodation in Dublin at present, meaning he and others will have to continue to live in tents without proper food and sanitary provisions.
01:20 They tell us we don't have any accommodation for the moment so we will just wait. So they don't know when they will provide us accommodation. So at the moment we just stay in the tents.
01:35 The Irish government is to change legislation in the coming weeks, giving it the legal authority to return illegal immigrants to the UK.
01:43 However, a member of the Irish Parliament and a qualified lawyer says any changes in the law will ultimately amount to no change at all.
01:52 Well it's entirely academic in circumstances where the United Kingdom have said that they won't take people back unless France also takes people back from the United Kingdom.
01:59 I mean it's certainly workable to fix the flaws in the legislation that were identified by the Irish High Court but it's academic if nobody is going to be transferred which is the current situation.
02:09 The Irish Prime Minister said scenes like this would never happen again but they have.
02:14 The problem now for the Irish government is that once these tents are cleared and these refugees are housed, the next influx of asylum seekers will only be 24 hours away.
02:24 This looks like a problem that shows no sign of going away.
02:28 This is Ken Murray for Euronews in Dublin.
02:31 (whooshing)
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