The percentage of asylum seekers entering the country through the open land border with the North has almost doubled since Brexit, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.  

More than nine in 10 International Protection (IP) applicants who have sought asylum here this year arrived in the State via the border. 

This figure has been rising steadily in recent years but represents a major spike from the percentage (47.6 per cent) of asylum seekers who crossed the border the year before Britain formally exited the EU.

The stark figures come as the Government and British authorities come under mounting pressure to crack down on illegal migrants using the open border to travel to and from the UK without detection after it emerged the Sudanese migrant who was filmed carrying out a horrific knife attack on a man in Belfast travelled to the North from Dublin.

A senior minister last night admitted the increasingly porous border is ‘the elephant in the room of the immigration debate’.

They told the MoS: ‘Unless we were to install proper border checks on roads crossing from Northern Ireland to the Republic, we could never really stem the flow of those coming from Britain to Northern Ireland and then travelling to Dublin to claim asylum.

Footage of the gruesome knife attack in Belfast went viral online and sparked intense rioting across the North this week.

It later emerged Hadi Alodid, the migrant filmed carrying out the knife attack, originally came to Dublin from Sudan on an unknown date – via Paris, according to some British press reports – and boarded a bus to the North in February 2023. 

He was granted refugee status later that year.

Preventing the return of a ‘hard’ border was a key sticking point during the Brexit negotiations but now gardaí and the PSNI find themselves facing calls to ramp up immigration controls.

The figures provided by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan’s department show asylum seekers are increasingly entering the Republic via the North.

Between January 1 and June 5 this year, 4,911 of the 5,443 (90.2 per cent) International Protection who claimed asylum in Ireland arrived in the country after crossing the border. Less than 10 per cent (532) came here via airports or seaports.

This represents a proportional increase on the figures for last year, when 11,557 of the 13,147 (87.9 per cent) IP applicants claimed asylum after crossing the border.

And it is a huge jump on figures from pre-Brexit 2019, when 2,278 of the 4,783 (47.6 per cent) IP applicants arrived in the Republic via the border. 

The same year, 2,505 (52 per cent) of asylum seekers entered the State through the country’s airports and seaports.

Commenting on the figures, a Cabinet source told the MoS: ‘The numbers have ebbed and flowed in recent years but now – with many migrants realising the state of the economy in Britain and the better chance [they have] of getting unskilled jobs here, there is definitely a far greater proportion going North to South rather than South to North.’

The Department of Justice acknowledged that its assessment, ‘based on the experience of staff and others working in the field, and based on the material gathered at interviews, is that in a significant proportion of cases, those applying for the first time in the IPO have entered over the land border.

‘This year to date, approximately 90 per cent of applications were made at the IPO (International Protection Office).’

A spokesperson said of Britain’s exit from the EU, which means Ireland and the UK can no longer share as much information on immigrants entering both jurisdictions: ‘Prior to the UK leaving the EU, returns to the UK were governed under the EU regulations. 

'The UK was the primary destination country for people transferred from Ireland under these regulations termed “inadmissible” applications.’

The UK was the primary destination country for people transferred from Ireland under these regulations termed “inadmissible” applications.’

However, the Department did not respond to queries asking if Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, pictured right, secretary of state Hilary Benn and the North’s justice minister Naomi Long discussed the possibility of both jurisdictions signing a new agreement on asylum policy or data sharing.

With Brexit, the UK government’s access to the Eurodac screening database ceased in 2020.

Despite rising concerns over illegal immigration, senior Government figures this weekend said there will not be a return to a ‘hard’ border with physical installations. An open free-flowing border is a central pillar of the peace process.

A Department of Justice source told the MoS: ‘The moment you start with significant border checks you open a Pandora’s Box… we are not doing that and the Brits aren’t doing that.

‘But the sheer numbers [of IP

applicants] arriving in Dublin who haven’t registered for asylum at an airport or port indicate that they are coming across the border – they are not dropping out of the sky.’

While ruling out any return of physical border infrastructure, ministers admit greater cooperation between the Irish and British authorities is needed to combat the rise in migrant traffic between the jurisdictions.

One minister told the MoS: ‘With the open border, which is not going to change, a greater co-operation is necessary. That is obvious. 

'And if one good thing comes from those horrific, disgusting, shocking events in Belfast last week, it is that the governments North and South and the UK understand we need to co-operate on migration. 

'We believe the checks on buses and trains are effective, that the Garda operation, Operation Sonnet, is effective, but it will be far more so if we all do it together,’ they said.

The renewed focus on Ireland’s border came as the EU Migration Pact came into force on Friday – two years after it was adopted by member states and the European Parliament. 

It legislates for greater coordination between member states, speedier processing of applications and the revives the return of applicants to the first country they applied in.

The overhaul was met with strong criticism from opposition TDs and human rights organisations. However, the Government and the European Commission insist it is essential to create uniform rules across the EU to combat illegal immigration.

Mr O’Callaghan this week said the pact ‘marks an important milestone in ensuring the integrity and efficiency of the asylum process and further building public confidence in the system’.

But civil society organisations say it will lead to further human rights violations that already characterise many member states’ border policies.

Irish Refugee Council chief executive Nick Henderson said the EU prioritises ‘expediency and fast-tracking over the rights and needs of the individual’.

The Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit echoed these concerns, while Sinn Féin claimed signing up to the Migration Pact undermines Ireland’s sovereignty and ability to govern its own borders.

However, Mr O’Callaghan has taken a significantly tougher stance against illegal immigration than previous administrations.

In April, the MoS revealed how Government focus on the issue was highlighted in a secret agenda prepared for a high-level meeting attended by Mr O’Callaghan, his junior ministers and top civil servants in the Department of Justice.

Almost half of the 86 items listed on the ‘MinMac’ document focused on what one senior Department of Justice source described as the Coalition’s ‘illegal immigration battle plan’.

In one section, highlighted in red under the heading ‘A Fairer But Firmer System’, the Department briefing note outlined plans to significantly increase the number of border security staff, hit airlines and ferry companies that fail to comply with obligations to carry out passenger immigration checks with huge fines and increase spot checks on passengers arriving at airports.

Sources said Mr O’Callaghan plans to ramp up the deportation of failed asylum seekers and migrants convicted of crimes back to their home countries on charter flights.

A Cabinet source said at the time: ‘We acknowledge that we have been complacent on this issue in the past. But there have been riots, protests, blockades and attacks on citizens all linked to immigration. 

'We all know we have to get tough… Ireland can’t be a soft touch anymore.’