The idea that Ireland can identify migrants who came from the UK to send them back is "as ludicrous" as sending them to Rwanda, an academic has claimed.
A new poll has found half of the Irish public want checkpoints on the border to limit the number of asylum seekers coming from the UK.
The Sunday Independent/Ireland Thinks opinion poll found there is also strong support here - at 40% - for a 'Rwanda-style' policy to deter migrants coming to Ireland.
Just over 80% of people want immigrants who have come here from Britain through Northern Ireland to be deported back to the UK.
The poll comes amid tensions between Dublin and London over migrants crossing into Ireland from Britain via Northern Ireland.
Ulster University Professor of Social Policy Deirdre Heenan told The Pat Kenny Show the poll shouldn't be ignored.
"I think we shouldn't pay much attention to the poll but we should not ignore the fact that immigration has risen up the policy agenda both in the Republic of Ireland and the UK," she said.
"Tensions between Dublin and London over immigration are a reminder in my opinion that Anglo-Irish relations post-Brexit are fragile."
'Weaponising the border'
Prof Heenan said the issue is a failure of systems on both sides.
"We've argued about an Irish border for the last six years," she said.
"I think what we are seeing here.... is an abject failure of systems that were supposed to deal with asylum.
"Politicking and weaponising the border is just simply reckless.
"The idea that Ireland can identify those who came from the UK and send them back to Britain is as ludicrous as sending migrants to Rwanda."
'Grown-up approach' to migrants
Prof Heenan said any solution has to involve cooperation between both countries.
"The reality is we have two sovereign nations that are intertwined, whether you like it or not, intertwined by history and politics," she said.
"The Common Travel Area, the Good Friday Agreement, mutual voting rights.
"We need a sensible, grown-up approach to say how are we going to deal with this now and into the future".
'Deeply suspicious'
Maynooth University Professor of European Politics John O’Brennan told the show the poll is a snapshot during heightened tensions.
"I think we should be deeply suspicious of this poll," he said.
"Any poll that's taken in the moment of great political controversy and this row between the UK and Ireland... I think we have to be very suspicious of it.
"If you actually begin to nuance that question and you point out to people the problems that occur as a result of taking that kind of action, then I think you get a very different kind of answer".
A view of the business district in Kigali, Rwanda, 21-5-16. Image: Vadim Nefedov / AlamyProf O'Brennan said migration is currently in the front of people's minds.
"It's very clear that immigration has risen so much up the ranking of issues that people have," he said.
"It kind of supersedes everything and that's why I think you got the answer that you got to the question that was framed in that particular way".
The Home Office in the UK has said it cannot locate 60% of migrants identified for deportation.
Prof O’Brennan pointed to the fact that the first person sent to Rwanda from the UK on a voluntary basis "scarpered with £3,000 of British government money" when he reached Kigali.
