Police began dismantling about 200 tents housing asylum-seekers in Ireland's capital, Dublin, early Wednesday.

The government said police and other authorities were removing the migrants from the tents on Mount Street in the center of the capital and moving them to shelters. Buses were on standby to take the people away.

People will not be allowed to return to the camp once it is cleared, Prime Minister Simon Harrishad said on Tuesday.

"Once we clear Mount Street and provide people with a safer setting and access to sanitation, we need to make sure that the laws of the land are applied and it is not allowed to happen again because we do not live in a country where makeshift shantytowns are allowed to just develop," he said.

The tents first appeared about a year ago on the sidewalks around the office of the International Protection Office, which examines asylum claims.

Housing crisis meets migration crisis

Ireland is trying to accommodate record numbers of refugees while struggling with a housing shortage. After running out of accommodation, the government agency responsible for housing asylum-seekers began handing out tents to some new arrivals last December.

Protests over housing and the added pressure of new arrivals have been mostly peaceful. But far-right activists attacked police last December after three children were stabbed to death by a man identified by Irish media as being born in Algeria.

Six people were arrested last week after a standoff with police at a building in Wicklow, south of Dublin. The building is meant to house asylum seekers.

Dispute with UK over migrants

The number of undocumented asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland, mainly through the open border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, has increased significantly recently, according to the Irish government.

According to media reports, more than 6,700 people have applied for asylum in Ireland since January. That's almost 90% more than in the same period last year.

Harris said he would send irregular migrants back to the UK and plans to introduce legislation to do so. However, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refuses to do so until the EU takes back migrants from the UK.

dh/sms (Reuters, dpa)