Adding to the complexity is that the UK government may face legal challenges to the implementation of some of its planned changes in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland High Court ruled in 2024 that a since-abandoned Westminster plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda could not apply in the North on that basis. Asylum seekers also continue to travel in the other direction, into the UK, via Northern Ireland. With Britain’s departure from the EU, it left an agreement whereby asylum seekers can be returned to be processed in the first European country they entered. Sinn Féin has urged the Government to pursue a formal bilateral agreement with the UK on returning asylum seekers.

Source: The Irish Times November 22, 2025 09:03 UTC