There is “no legal requirement” for asylum seekers to remain in any set location after arriving in Ireland, Simon Harris has said.

It emerged overnight that more than half the people rescued from a shipping container in Rosslare earlier this week are now missing.

The Irish Independent reports that the group was moved to an asylum centre in Dublin following their rescue at Rosslare Europort on Monday; however, at least eight of the 14 people have since fled State services.

This morning, the Department of Integration said there is nothing requiring international protection applicants to remain in State-provided care.

Meanwhile, Gardaí said it was not a matter for the force as the people involved were not arrested, detained or under criminal investigation.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Higher Education Minister Simon Harris agreed.

“Firstly, in relation to the people who came into the country in very difficult and horrific circumstances - a refrigerated container - I think the first and most important thing is not to look at this from a migration point of view but look at it from a humanitarian point of view,” he said.

“The message here is quite important for those people – they could well be quite vulnerable and we want them to reconnect with State services.

“On the broader point in relation to migration, there is no legal requirement on anybody to remain in a set location.

“That is the same for any individual who comes into the country today.

“You do register though. You do register with our International Protection Service when you enter our country and as part of that registration process, you are fingerprinted, we do have details in relation to where you are intending to stay; we do have details in terms of how you came into the country, we do have details and we can run against databases internationally.”

Deportation

Minister Harris insisted that everyone seeking asylum in Ireland goes through the same process – and if their application is refused “deportation procedures follow”.

“As the Minister for Justice made clear yesterday, more than 800 deportation orders were issued during the course of 2023,” he said.

“So I do not want any listener to think that anybody who comes into our country seeking asylum or seeking refuge that they can just kind of thwart the system.

“The system has very strict rules that are applied and are being applied quicker and more efficiently than they were even only a year ago.”

Asylum seekers

Separately new figures released today show there are now almost 600 asylum seekers who have not been offered anywhere to stay by the State since arriving in Ireland.

The Government stopped offering accommodation to all single, male asylum seekers on December 4th due to a "nationwide shortage" of places to stay.

In the weeks since, some 720 men have arrived seeking international protection and 569 of them are still waiting on an offer of accommodation from the State – an increase of 57 on figures provided to Newstalk just last Tuesday.

You can listen back to Minister Harris here: