A POLL showing half the population of Ireland supports migrant checkpoints at the border with Northern Ireland is part of a “policy of distraction,” the Communist Party of Ireland says.

The survey by the Sunday Independent and Ireland Thinks found 50 per cent of the country, including a majority of Sinn Fein voters, are in favour of putting in place the checkpoints as a means of limiting the number of asylum-seekers entering from Britain.

The poll also shows 82 per cent of Irish people want immigrants arriving in Ireland from the north of the island to be deported back to Britain. 

Concern over immigration in Ireland has dramatically soared by 15 points, according to the poll. This has led to 40 per cent supporting a policy similar to that planned by the Westminster government to deport migrants to Rwanda, although 42 per cent opposed the measure.

But both the Fine Gael-led Irish government and the main opposition Sinn Fein have ruled out checkpoints on the Border and any Rwanda-style policy.

The Communist Party of Ireland explained that “the poll took place during a week in which government ministers had claimed that most of those presenting for asylum in the 26 counties had entered the state by crossing the British-imposed border.”

The party told the Morning Star that the claims were made against the backdrop of forthcoming elections, “lack of GP services in working-class areas, an under-financed health system, poverty and the threat to neutrality.

“Claiming that the fault lies with the open border is but the latest manifestation of the policy of distraction.”

The party said: “It should be noted that the source of the poll, the Irish Independent, is the traditional home of the most anti-republican and anti-reunification sections of 26-county society.

“The Independent has an almost visceral hatred of the six county nationalist community and never misses an opportunity to reinforce a partitionist mentality.”