Taoiseach hits back after Sunak says cross-Border migration vindicates Rwanda policy

Simon Harris: 'This country will not in any way, shape, or form provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenge'

Taoiseach Simon Harris was responding to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak's suggestion that the increase of immigration into the Republic through the North showed the UK's 'deterrent' policy was working. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Ireland will not become a “loophole” for the UK’s migration policy, the Taoiseach has vowed, with emergency legislation being drafted to allow for the return of asylum seekers who arrive here from the North.

Justice Minister Helen McEntee will today meet her British counterpart, James Cleverly, after it was suggested that Britain’s contentious Rwanda policy has resulted in a spike of asylum seekers crossing the border into Ireland.