Ireland confirms Priti Patel raised concerns about ‘backdoor’ to UK for Ukrainian refugees

UK stance branded ‘disgraceful’ and ‘irresponsible’ by MPs in Dublin

Irish prime minister Micheál Martin has confirmed that Priti Patel told Dublin she was concerned that the country’s welcoming policy towards Ukrainian refugees would allow them to reach the UK by the back door.

An anonymous briefing from a UK government source on Tuesday suggested that Ukrainian criminals or drug dealers could take advantage of the Anglo-Irish common travel area to gain access to mainland Britain.

The suggestion was blasted as “disgraceful” and “absolutely terrible” by members of the Irish parliament today.

And Mr Martin said that justice minister Helen McEntee had pointed out to home secretary that Ireland was part of the response of the whole EU, which has waived visas for Ukrainians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s murderous assault on their homeland.

“That continues to be our position in respect of prioritising the humanitarian response, above and beyond anything else,” Mr Martin said.

More than 2,500 Ukrainians, including many children, had been welcomed visa-free to the Republic by Wednesday, compared to 760 who had been granted visas to enter the UK.

Mr Martin told the Dáil that in the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the Second World War “some of the norms that would characterise business-as-usual would have to be put to one side”.

“This crisis is going to be so big in my view, that we have to pull out all the stops as quickly as we can as a government,” he said.

An anonymous government source was quoted in the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday claiming Ukrainians will be able to travel on to the UK without biometric checks because of the common travel area (CTA).

“Ireland has basically opened the door to everyone in Ukraine, which creates a problem due to the CTA,” the source said.

“We’ve seen before with migrants from Albania that they have come through Dublin, into Belfast and across to the mainland to Liverpool. That’s created a drug cartel route.”

But it was quickly pointed out that the visa-free CTA only applies to UK and Irish citizens, not to migrants from other countries.

Simon Cox, a barrister at the Doughty Street Chambers firm, dismissed the claim as “dirty propaganda”, adding: “ Ireland has security checks on Ukrainians arriving without visas. Just as UK has for French people arriving without visas.”

And the briefing provoked an angry response in the Dublin parliament, where Social Democrat MP Jennifer Whitmore said: “I think it’s disgraceful and there’s a responsibility to actually do a lot more and for them to welcome people into their country.”

“Under the Common Travel Area arrangements, you have to be an Irish or British citizen to utilise that right of movement. So what has been said is completely wrong.

“What it does is it creates this fear amongst people and creates division. It was incredibly irresponsible and they should never have made that statement.”

Another MP, Richard Boyd Barrett said Britain’s attitude to Ukrainian refugees was “absolutely terrible”.

“It really shows a considerable hypocrisy on the part of the British government, who are very keen to justify their own involvement in military alliances, but then don’t want us to extend the sort of humanitarian solidarity and refuge to people fleeing the conflict,” he told the Dáil.

Mr Martin said the border with Northern Ireland will not be closed.

“We have an open border with Northern Ireland, that is not going to change – be that for pandemic reasons or be that for refugee reasons,” he said.

"We are not going to shut the border and the UK government will understand this in the same way as we understood it when it was coming the other way with the pandemic.

"The best way is not to shut a border but to ensure you share information. That gives confidence that the security issue can be addressed.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.