Migrants living in Dublin’s tent city say they are grateful to Britain

Migrants living in Dublin’s tent city today thanked Rishi Sunak for refusing to allow them back to Britain – because they ‘don’t want to go to Rwanda ‘. Around 1,700 asylum seekers are living in tents in the Irish capital after crossing the border over fears that they would be sent to Rwanda if they stayed in Northern Ireland . Rishi Sunak yesterday declared he is ‘not interested’ in taking back migrants from Ireland – when the EU was refusing to take back Channel migrants who came from France . The row broke out after senior Irish ministers said they would draft emergency laws to send back refugees who had arrived from the UK to avoid being deported to Rwanda. Meanwhile Ireland’s deputy prime minister and foreign secretary Micheal Martin blamed the influx of migrants on Britain’s Rwanda scheme as he claimed ‘fearful’ asylum seekers were descending on Dublin. Among those sleeping under canvas in Dublin is asylum seeker Otumba, who travelled from Nigeria to the UK, before settling in Dublin via Belfast . He told MailOnline: ‘I came into the UK. I wanted to seek asylum. Then five weeks ago we heard that the Rwanda Bill is going to be passed, and we don’t want to go back to Africa.’

‘Africa is not an option. It is not safe. Africa is like a volcano that can erupt at any time. We decided to go to Ireland on information that Ireland is safer and more accommodating. ‘We had an idea about what was going to happen, so you don’t take chances.’ Otumba, in his 40s, arrived in the UK four months ago after flying from his home in Lagos, Nigeria, on a six-month tourist visa. He intended to claim asylum when his visa expired because he faced ‘persecution’ back home. After spending time in London, Leicester and Northampton, he took the train to Birmingham , where he then flew to Belfast before quickly taking a bus to Dublin. He continued: ‘In Belfast, it was a gateway to Ireland, we came straight here, we don’t waste time. We wanted to get out of UK and we don’t want to get caught. We just hopped in the bus.’

Otumba, a political refugee who said, ‘some guys are after my life’, described the Rwanda Bill as a ‘racist’ and hopes Mr Sunak will ‘lose the election’. He continued: ‘A lot of people, especially the Arabs, they come to Ireland instead because they can integrate faster here than the UK and there is no fear of Rwanda. ‘But now our Irish prime minister wants to put emergency legislation to send people back. It’s not going to work because the UK will say they are not willing to accept asylum seekers from Ireland which I think is good news to us. ‘We don’t want to go Rwanda. It’s a very good thing that we can’t go back to [Northern Ireland]. It concerns me that [Ireland wants to send people back].’ He and four friends who have all met here after travelling from Nigeria now live in tents around the International Protection Office.

‘When I heard that the Rwanda Bill was going to be passed in no time, I was so scared. And people advised me to go to Ireland and said they were going to be really accommodating. ‘I didn’t know we were going to be sleeping in tents. I thought we were going to get proper houses and stuff. ‘We’ve been here for five weeks now and the situation has just been the same. ‘Friends in Ireland told me that Ireland is much safer than the UK. Ireland will not support us. Now I hear that Ireland wants to send us back to the UK. No, we’re not going anywhere. He said he is terrified of being sent to Rwanda. He said: ‘You heard about the genocide some years ago? Yeah. It’s still Africa. Africa is not safe. Africa is like a volcano waiting to erupt anytime, because war could break out anytime. My country, Nigeria, is far better than Rwanda.’

Abdul Mohammed, who was supposed to be on one of the first flights to Rwanda in 2022 before fleeing London, said: ‘I crossed because they want to send me to Rwanda. I don’t want to go. ‘I crossed in a small boat. I did not want to go to Rwanda. It is not safe. I was sent a letter in my hotel. I was in a hotel in London. ‘I took a bus from London to Liverpool, then went from Liverpool to Belfast by boat. I then took a bus. I did it by myself. The 20-year-old, who left Sudan and crossed into the UK from France in a small boat, added: ‘Every country in Africa is not safe. Before, did you know the story of Rwanda? It was very bad. ‘I received the letter in 2022. I left the hotel, went to stay with my friend, then after that, I came here.

‘I arrived in the UK in 2022. I stayed for two years. I arrived in Dublin 20 days ago. I went from London, to Belfast, to Dublin in one day. Mr Mohammed, who was speaking from his tent, said: ‘I am more confident about my position here than I am in the UK. Here, they don’t say anything. ‘The UK says ‘go to Rwanda’. The UK is safe, but now it says to go Rwanda and it is not safe. If the UK was not saying anything, I would not come here.’ Another asylum seeker, 28-year-old Mahmoud, also fled Jordan for the UK but said he quickly moved to Ireland because he was worried about being deported to Rwanda. ‘We don’t have asylum in Britain,’ he said. ‘The problem with Britain is that they might send us to Rwanda . I came two months ago because I am scared about this’.

The driver fled his homeland in January after he was found to have cheated on his wife with a married woman. ‘I ran into problems in Jordan,’ he said. ‘I could’ve be killed. I had a relationship with a married woman and then my wife found out and her family found out and then her brothers wanted to kill me’. He hopes one day that he will be able to return to Amman. ‘Speaking honestly, if my problem could be solved, I would go home now,’ he said. Mohammed Alsafe, 47, fled from the West Bank in Palestine to the UK two months ago because he thought it was ‘maybe more safe to come than UK’. Mr Alsafe, a painter, first went to Jordan and then France before reaching the UK. He crossed in a small boat before getting a ferry to Belfast. The father-of-two, whose children are aged 12 and 14 and remain in Palestine, said he paid a man to take him from Belfast to Dublin despite their being no border.

‘I give him money,’ he said. ‘I don’t know. That man he tells me give me money and come here. I gave him money in Belfast. ‘I don’t know where I was going, I am in the car boxed up. I don’t see where I am going. I didn’t know what, I didn’t see anything.’ ‘I need to come to Dublin,’ he added. ‘I need to live. There were no visas in Belfast. In UK there are no visas. The government maybe makes you go to Rwanda.’ ‘I see it on the news and on social media. I think the UK government will pay for you to go to Rwanda. Rwanda is not good.’ Mr Alsafe, who stayed in London for just one day, added: ‘I hope Dublin gives me papers, after that I can bring my family over’. Asylum seeker Ahmed said he fled the West Bank earlier this year and travelled to the UK on a small boat from France before flying to Belfast and crossing down into ireland.

‘I could’ve claimed asylum in the UK but it takes too long,’ he said.’I know someone came to the UK years ago but they are still trying to get asylum.’ ‘They treat Palestinians with more respect here. Ireland has better relations with Palestine than Britain and that’s why I came here’. Father-of-two Imran, who came from Afghanistan to Ireland via France , said asylum seekers are ‘worried about coming to Rwanda’. ‘That’s the main reason they are leaving England, because they are trying to send them to Rwanda, they are scared of these deportations,’ he added. Tension continues to rise between Irish locals and homeless asylum seekers whose tents are lining the roads around International Protection Office. When MailOnline visited the encampment, locals walking past covered their noses to show their disgust at the smell of urine in the area. Others voiced their anger at not being able to walk on the pavement, with one shouting ‘get out the way for [expletive] sake’ at a migrant standing in their way.

Hundreds of tents are packed tightly together with minimal personal space and migrants have no access to sanitary facilities. A large group of the migrants were moved to another location in south Dublin earlier this month but later returned because the conditions there were reportedly even worse. Abdul, a 24-year-old migrant who spent seven months travelling from Afghanistan to Northern Ireland, said it was ‘not fair’ that he was forced to travel down to Dublin to avoid being sent to Rwanda. The married father-of-two told MailOnline outside Dublin’s ‘tent city’: ‘There is a word – humanity. Everyone needs to be a human, we are humans. We have a problem in our country. I got here today from Northern Ireland. When asked why he had come down to Ireland, he said: ‘Rwanda – I think this is not good. Our country we are in the [expletive] – they are trying to apply their policies and rules on us. The asylum seeker said he came to Ireland ‘because of UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’.

But Abdul added: ‘The Irish government wants to send [us] back to UK. This is not fair. It took seven months to get from Afghanistan to Northern Ireland – look at my face. You will get the idea how difficult it is. ‘There is a word – humanity. Everyone should be treated as a human. Speaking about the UK not allowing refugees to return to Northern Ireland, he added: ‘This is also not fair. We need to spend life like normal people spend. We are also humans. ‘We also want to have a normal life, get education or get medical facilities and all these things. ‘This is the reason – everyone knows about Rwanda. The corruptions and the situation is Rwanda – it is a very backward country. There is no facilities. Their people are also crying. We feel better here. ‘I’m married and I have a family there so I need travel documents and all these things. It is important to visit and see my family or take them here. They are also not safe. ‘[I want a] better quality of life – not yet but maybe later. It’s my first day.’

A pair of friends who had also arrived in Dublin from Northern Ireland with suitcases said they were left with no choice because of the fear of being sent to Rwanda. ‘It is not fair, we have had to come here after a week’, one said. ‘We are tired and hungry.’ Adhi, who arrived in Dublin from London on March 20, said: ‘Everyone is coming here now because maybe they are scared about going to the African country [Rwanda]. ‘I came from Sri Lanka from UK after a few years. I have been in London. I came to Dublin due to money personally. In London it is hard to get jobs and there is not a proper lifestyle. That’s why we came here. ‘I know about Rwanda. Honestly to go to Rwanda, I do not want to go there because the situation would be far worse than what is happening here or in the UK so we don’t want to go there.’ When asked about whether Ireland is doing enough to support asylum seekers, he said: ‘Everywhere there is people sorting us out and others who think ‘it’s our country, we can’t bring people here to change their history’.

Ireland is doing well, but it’s a little bit of slow process. He said he was ‘not interested’ in going back to UK, adding: ‘The lifestyle is really good but when it comes to work, I work a 12-hour shift in a care home, they take 25 per cent of our salary as a tax. And the amount they pay me is £10.50. They take all the taxes, and if you work five to six days a week and still paying thousands tax.’ Obeda Gaza, who made it to Dublin from Gaza after paying a trafficker $8,000USD, said: ‘I came from Khan Younis [Gaza] to Egypt. I crossed the Jenin crossing. I went from Egypt to Turkey to Greece to France without documents. I had fake documents. When I woke up I was in Dublin.’ Mr Gaza, who got a small boat from Calais to Dublin, said he ‘did not want to go to the UK’. When asked if Rwanda came into his mind, he said: ‘If the country don’t want us, get me back to Gaza. I will go back to Gaza and would die with my family. ‘I would rather die with my brother and sisters with my county than go back to Rwanda if they don’t want us there. ‘I’m here to start a life. If you don’t want me to keep here, I would rather go back to Gaza.’ Mr Gaza said that ‘people hate us’ at the encampment.

Ashan Pulle, 31, who came from Sri Lanka to Dublin two months ago, said: ‘Ireland is better than the UK. I heard people saying stay here don’t go to UK, UK is too much problem and here is good’. ‘Here, they have peaceful people, helping each other. That’s why I stay here. He said part of the reason he came to Ireland rather than the UK was because of the threat of going to Rwanda. He added: ‘There is no work, no protection like Ireland. Here, the only problem we have is accommodation. Everything is good. Here they give free medicine, food, breakfast, lunch, dinner. When asked whether the Irish government are right to send migrants back to Belfast, he said: ‘I don’t think it is good.’ Another migrant, who did not want to be named, said he came from Egypt and said it ‘would not be good’ to go back to Africa if he was sent to Rwanda. ‘I am happy to be here,’ he said. He said he has been in Dublin for five days and will travel around Europe to places such as Holland, France and Belgium but not the UK.

The Irish Government is to introduce legislation in response to an Irish High Court ruling last month that Ireland’s designation of the UK as a ‘safe third country’ for returning asylum seekers, in the context of the Rwanda plan, is contrary to EU law. Mr Sunak said the comments from Ireland showed that ‘the deterrent is already having an impact’. ‘If they know they won’t be able to stay they are much less likely to come,’ the premier told Sky News on Sunday. And he told ITV News yesterday: ‘We’re not interested in that. We’re not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesn’t accept returns back to France where illegal migrants are coming from. ‘Of course we’re not going to do that.’ When quizzed on whether there were any negotiations with the EU on returns, he added: ‘No, I’m focused on getting our Rwanda scheme up and running.’ Mr Sunak’s Rwanda plan moved a step closer this month after legislation facilitating the proposals finally cleared Westminster. The government is now pushing for the first flights to the East African country to take off in July.

Speaking in Co Monaghan on Sunday, Mr Harris said: ‘Every country is entitled to have its own migration policy, but I certainly don’t intend to allow anybody else’s migration policy to affect the integrity of our own one.’ ‘This country will not in any way, shape or form provide a loophole for anybody else’s migration challenges. That’s very clear. Other countries can decide how they wish to advance migration. ‘From an Irish perspective, we intend to have a firm rules-based system where rules are in place, where rules are in force, where rules are seen to be enforced. ‘It is a statement of fact that there was a returns agreement in place between Ireland and Britain, and there was a High Court decision in the month of March in relation to that. ‘My colleague, the Minister for Justice, will now bring forward legislative proposals to Cabinet on Tuesday that will seek to put in place a new returns policy. We’re going to await the full details of that but it’s one which will effectively allow, again, people to be returned to the United Kingdom. And I think that’s quite appropriate. It was always the intention. ‘It’s very important in migration and in the challenge that migration poses in so many countries, that you can be agile and respond to things quickly as they arise.’

Meanwhile Mr Martin told reporters in Dublin on Friday: ‘Clearly, we’ve had an increase in the numbers coming into Northern Ireland into the Republic. ‘And it’s fairly obvious that a Rwanda policy, if you’re a person in a given situation in the UK and well, then you don’t want to go to Rwanda – not that anybody has gone yet, I hasten to add. ‘So I think it’s a fair comment of mine. There are many other issues – it’s not in any way trying to blame anything or anything like that.’ The Irish Examiner has reported that there are roughly 1,700 homeless asylum seekers currently in Ireland. A residents’ group in Dublin’s south inner city has pleased for those staying in tents on Mount Street to be moved to ‘more appropriate space of accommodation or interim shelter’. 

In a statement, the Residents’ Network Mount and Grattan St Areas told RTE: ‘We are appalled at the encampment of asylum seekers established in our neighbourhood, how it has been allowed to develop and the lack of communication and response of the authorities to our concerns’. The group said it is ‘sympathetic to and supportive’ of the migrants but added it does ‘not accept that an encampment of tents around our neighbourhood is acceptable or even legal’. They said residents are ‘being forced to live in untenable and unsafe conditions while still obliged to pay property taxes, as the property value has crashed for owners’. One woman, who moved from London to Dublin, in March said she was not aware that the tents were in the area of where she was moving to. She said she was paying £1,500-a-month which is ‘way more in London which is sad’.

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