Taoiseach: Suspending migrants' visa-free travel is a 'wise move'
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Up to five times more refugees are to come to Ireland this year compared to previous years and suspending visa-free travel for migrants is the “wise move", according to Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
He said the suspension of the visa-free travel is "not something that the Government wants to do" but there are concerns over how the system has been working in recent months.
Speaking in Japan, Micheál Martin said that the Department of Justice had flagged concerns about a surge in international protection applications.
"We have had the Department of Justice examining that issue in terms of the convention around refugees in safe countries being in a position to travel. There has been a significant surge in people seeking international protection over the last number of months.
"There was concern within the Department of Justice in terms of that system so we have suspended it for 12 months. We will review it, but it is linked to a recent surge of people applying international protection."
The Taoiseach denied that the opt-out of the European Council policy is similar to the UK's breaches of international agreements around the Northern Protocol.
"Given the circumstances that we are in at the moment, and particularly the phenomena of the last number of weeks and in respect of those seeking international protection, I think it's a wise move to take at this particular point," he said, adding Ireland could end up with five times as many refugee applications this year as 2019.
"But it's not something that we want to do. It's not desirable, but we have to be realistic here as well. And if there are concerns within the Department of Justice in relation to this, then we simply have to do it.
Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane said “everything possible” needs to be done to take in a maximum number of refugees.
He said the decision on visas will impact a “tiny percentage” of people and Sinn Féin will not oppose it. “We are not trying to be unhelpful here in this scenario when we have a crisis when we're trying to take in as many Ukrainian refugees as possible.”
Mr Cullinane said while a cap shouldn’t be set on the number of Ukrainian refugees coming into the country, they should themselves decide if the State is the best place for them if there is no housing for them.
“I would imagine that the refugees themselves would obviously have to look at what’s happening in each country and decide, ‘Well, is this where I want to go if the accommodation isn’t there?’
“You get into dangerous territory when you start setting targets. In the first instance, we need to be as generous as we can for everybody."
The Minister for Agriculture earlier described the Government’s decision to tighten refugee visa requirements as “fair and appropriate”.
Charlie McConalogue said there has been a three-fold increase in applications for international protection from people who already had refugee status in an EU member state.