The Irish Border problem locks open Britain’s borders to EU citizens


The Irish Border problem locks open Britain’s borders to EU citizens

July 20, 2018

Today, the Prime Minister has once again confirmed that she has ruled out any kind of hard border in Ireland.

As a new Migration Watch UK paper being issued today notes, this has consequences for the immigration regime between the UK and the EU as a whole.

The UK government White Paper, issued on 12 July, has explicitly stated that the future mobility arrangements that they envisage with the EU will be 'without prejudice to the Common Travel Area'.

However, free movement of people within the EU means that EU citizens will continue to have free movement into Ireland so respecting the Common Travel Area (CTA) must mean that there can be no checks on the movement of EU citizens from the Republic to Northern Ireland.

At the same time the introduction of border controls on people would be unacceptable to the UK government for reasons similar to their objections to customs checks.

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