Cleverly-McEntee meeting on migration postponed because of ‘genuine diary clash’

A postponed meeting between James Cleverly and Irish justice minister Helen McEntee was because of a “genuine diary clash”, an Irish minister has said.

The Home Secretary and Ms McEntee had been due to meet on Monday to discuss “strengthening” the Common Travel Area, but the meeting was postponed late on Sunday night.

The change emerged after a weekend where the UK and Irish governments rowed over the movement of asylum seekers from the UK to Ireland.

Ireland’s deputy premier and foreign affairs minister Micheal Martin is still attending the British Irish Inter-Governmental Conference (BIIGC) in London, and will co-chair it alongside Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

It was confirmed on Monday that Ms McEntee will not attend the BIIGC and will instead meet senior officials in Dublin.

“The minister looks forward to her meeting with the Home Secretary being rescheduled soon,” a Department statement said.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Irish Media Minister Catherine Martin said the meeting was postponed due to “a genuine diary clash”.

“I would say from what I’ve been told it is a genuine diary clash and that both ministers are determined to meet at the earliest opportunity,” she said, emphasising that it was a “postponement, not a cancellation”.

Ms McEntee has claimed last week that the number of asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland is now “higher than 80%” due to a shift in migration patterns in recent months.

After Mr Martin said the increase could be driven by migrants in fear of being deported to Rwanda, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the weekend that shows the Rwanda plan’s effect.

The policy aims to send asylum seekers to the east African nation to deter others from crossing the English Channel.

It comes as Channel crossings continued on Monday and Home Office figures showed that more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey – reaching a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year.

Irish premier Simon Harris said on Sunday that Ireland will not “provide a loophole” for other countries’ migration “challenges” and said Ireland will draft legislation for a “new returns policy”.

Mr Harris also said that “close” collaboration and co-operation between the British and Irish governments is “not just desirable, but absolutely essential”.

Irish ministers are expected to discuss emergency legislation that would see asylum seekers “returned” to the UK on Tuesday.

The legislation is being drafted in response to an Irish High Court ruling which found that Ireland designating the UK as a “safe third country” for returning asylum seekers, in the context of the Rwanda plan, is contrary to EU law.

The UK Government said it would decide who is allowed to enter the country, despite any legislation the Irish Government may pass.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Monday: “Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who we do and don’t accept into the country and, clearly, we aren’t going to start accepting returns from the EU just as the EU doesn’t accept asylum returns from the UK to France.”

Mel Stride, the UK Work and Pensions Secretary, said on Monday that the claimed increase in people seeking asylum in Ireland who have crossed the border are early signs of the Rwanda plan’s effectiveness.

Asked whether the UK would accept asylum seekers being sent back across the border into Northern Ireland, Mr Stride told LBC: “We are not in the business of having more illegal migrants in the UK.

“What you are seeing now are the early signs of the deterrent effect works. That’s exactly why we are now having this conversation, because we have now passed that legislation.”

Labour’s David Lammy said it is “way too premature” to say that the Rwanda plan is working.

“I suspect, actually, as the weather warms up we will see this scheme, I’m afraid, has not deterred many, many people from crossing the Channel,” the shadow foreign secretary told LBC.

“I think it’s way too premature to say now that we’ve seen a few people go to Dublin somehow this has been achieved. That’s just not going to be the case.”

Mr Lammy also called for a “co-ordinated agreement” with European countries, rather than a “whack-a-mole situation” where compromises are made with individual states as they raise complaints.

On Sunday, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill urged a “thought-out” and “considered” response from both the British and Irish governments.

Some 500 migrants crossed the Channel to the UK on Friday and Saturday alone, taking the provisional total for 2024 to date to 7,167.

This exceeds the previous record high figure of 6,691 for January to April 2022 and has already surpassed the 5,946 arrivals in the first four months of last year.

It means arrivals are 24% higher than this time last year and 7% higher than at this point in 2022.

No crossings were recorded on Sunday but groups of migrants were pictured being brought ashore in Dover, Kent, on Monday amid sunny, breezy and clear weather conditions at sea.