UK will not accept return of asylum seekers from Ireland, Rishi Sunak says

The comments on Monday, three days before the Conservatives face voters in local elections, undercut an attempt to de-escalate what has emerged as the biggest threat to British-Irish relations since Brexit.

Downing Street hopes the Safety of Rwanda Act, a centrepiece of the Tory electoral campaign which received royal assent last week, will help stop people crossing on small boats from France.

A document quietly published by the Home Office on Monday night stated that Rwanda had agreed in principle to take 5,700 people, of whom 2,143 “continue to report … and can be located for detention”.

On Tuesday the Irish cabinet will consider emergency legislation to facilitate returning asylum seekers to the UK – a legal fix required to reverse an Irish high court ruling last month that the UK was no longer a “safe third country” for returning asylum seekers because of the Rwanda plan.

Rivka Shaw, a policy officer at Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, a legal advice centre, said thousands of people feared being “bundled into a van” and placed in detention.

The imminent threat of detention would cause people to “disappear” from accommodation and skip appointments, exposing them to greater risk of exploitation in the “shadow economy”, said Shaw.