Stark new images have revealed dozens of tents sprawling through Dublin streets – with UK and Irish ministers embroiled in an escalating row over migrants travelling from the UK to Ireland.

The string of makeshift accommodation, seen this morning stretching around the International Protection Office and continuing along the road, has been dubbed a ‘tent city’ by the Irish Examiner, which reported there are roughly 1,700 homeless asylum seekers currently in Ireland.

The tents, packed tightly together with minimal personal space, have no access to sanitary facilities with migrants telling reporters earlier this month they were forced to use an open toilet in the corner of the camp.

A large group of the migrants were moved to another location in south Dublin earlier this month but later returned because the conditions there were reportedly even worse.

Several of their tents sported scrawled messages that read ‘we are not subhuman’ and ‘homes for all’.

It comes as UK Government ministers today flatly rejected Dublin’s demands to take back asylum seekers crossing from Northern Ireland.

The Republic has voiced alarm that large numbers are taking advantage of the invisible border on the island to avoid being deported to Rwanda.

Taoiseach Simon Harris has vowed to pass new laws to facilitate returns of migrants, after the country’s courts declared the UK cannot be classed as ‘safe’ due to the pact with the African state.

However, a spokesman for Rishi Sunak today suggested that the Prime Minister would ignore any new law, saying: ‘Even if Ireland was to pass legislation, it is up to the UK Government to decide who it does or does not accept into the country.

‘We are not going to start accepting returns from the EU, just as France doesn’t accept returns from the UK.’

The spat comes as Home Office figures show more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after making the journey – a new record high for the first four months of a calendar year.

The Republic remains part of the European Union, which has blocked British attempts to resolve the Channel crisis with a returns agreement to France.

In a sign of the rising tensions, Dublin had been talking up a meeting between justice minister Helen McEntee and Home Secretary James Cleverly in London today.

However, Mr Cleverly has stepped aside due to other engagements, and Ms McEntee has now pulled out. As a result foreign minister Micheal Martin hold talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris instead.

Read More: Dublin’s migrant ‘tent city’: Makeshift encampment lines the pavements around asylum processing centre