Britain will seek to retain an open land border with the Republic of Ireland with no border posts, security, or even CCTV cameras after Brexit, even though this could potentially leave a totally unguarded back door to the Free Movement European Union area.
The British government has published a position paper on their intended direction of travel with the land border between British home nation Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Under the proposed plan, Britain would retain a common travel area with Ireland which has existed since the nation became independent in 1922, and maintain the free movement of goods and services between the two countries.
However, the plan to maintain the status quo between the two nations that share the British Isles which has existed for nearly a century is fraught with difficulty as Ireland intends to remain a member of the EU, as the open border could prove to be both a back door to migrants coming to the United Kingdom from the Free Movement area, and of goods from the rest of the world entering the EU through a deregulated, free trading Britain.
Because protecting the terms of the 1998 Good Friday agreement is seen as so important in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, both of which treat each other’s citizens as enjoying privileged positions above other foreigners thanks to bonds of history, under the proposal the UK-Ireland border would not even have a border guard post or CCTV cameras.
Yet the British government has not set out in the document how these problems would be overcome. Previous proposals including an inspected border between the British mainland and the Island of Ireland, where the Republic and Ulster could enjoy an open border, have not been seriously discussed.
The difficulties surrounding the border were discussed in 2016, when Dan Mulhall, the Irish ambassador to Britain, addressed the British House of Lords on the matter. Dismissing the issue, he said that the fact Ireland was not part of the Schengen area meant EU citizens could not travel directly to Britain through Ireland without going through passport control:
“For as long as Ireland is not part of Schengen [The EU’s borderless zone], everyone coming into Ireland from continental Europe and beyond has to go through passport control at our airports and ports.
“Therefore, the only people who will have the right of free movement into Ireland and the right to live, work, visit and settle in Ireland will be European Union citizens.
“It is, of course, true that an EU citizen could come to Ireland after Brexit, settle in Ireland and then decide to go across the border to Northern Ireland and then to Britain, but they would be illegal immigrants. As I understand, most Europeans are not interested in being illegal in any European country It seems to me that only a relatively small number of European Union citizens would want to come to the UK illegally.”
The problem of Free Movement between Ireland and Europe leading to Free Movement to Britain through the back door is not new. Breitbart London reported in June how using the Irish backdoor had allowed London Bridge terror killer Rachid Redouane to enter the United Kingdom.
The Moroccan-Libyan origin killer had originally been refused asylum in Britain, but moved to Ireland and married there, so being granted an EU residence card. With these new rights, he then travelled to the United Kingdom where he was part of the Muslim gang which struck at London Bridge and Borough Market in a hired van, killing eight.
Follow Oliver Lane on Facebook, Twitter: Follow @Oliver_Lane or e-mail: olane[at]breitbart.com
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