The relocation of asylum seekers residing in tents in Dublin's centre has started.

In a makeshift camp outside the International Protection Office on Mount Street, the asylum seekers have been residing.

The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Justice; the Gardaí (Irish police); Dublin City Council; the Office of Public Works; and the HSE are all involved in the operation.

According to the government, the operation will "ensure the safe movement of people seeking international protection" to lodging facilities accredited by the International Protection Accommodation Service.

Operation underway

The accommodation has toilets and showers, health services, indoor areas where food is provided, facilities to charge phones and personal devices, access to transport to and from Dublin City Centre and 24-hour onsite security.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Taoiseach (prime minister) Simon Harris said that once asylum seekers sleeping on the street are given accommodation, the encampment will not be allowed to return.

Part of Mount Street has been closed off to traffic and pedestrians on Wednesday morning, according to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

People who have been sleeping in tents are gathering beside buses parked in the middle of the road.

Contractors, some wearing protective clothing, are starting to clear the tents from the street.

The Irish government has recently expressed concern that the UK's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is encouraging more refugees to come to the Republic of Ireland.

Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin said last week that asylum seekers were seeking "sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda".

On Tuesday a plan to draft new Irish legislation which would redesignate the UK as a "safe country" to which asylum seekers can be returned was approved.

It came after Justice Minister Helen McEntee claimed more than 80% of recent asylum claims were from people who arrived in the state by crossing the border with Northern Ireland.

More than 1,400 asylum applicants are currently without accommodation in the Republic of Ireland.

One 22-year-old man from India told the BBC he had arrived in the Republic via Northern Ireland.

The man said he had been studying in the UK but his visa had expired.

He said he left the UK after Brexit because “they made strict rules”.

He travelled to Northern Ireland by ferry and then got on a bus to Dublin where he now lives in a tent in the city centre.

“I came for good opportunities because there is only one life,” he said.

“If I’m honest it’s not that good because the weather is really bad and the tent is leaking but there are many good people providing us with stuff and they’re helping a lot so I’m really happy with that.”