Quote:
Originally Posted by Hugh
How would we stop illegal immigrants coming over from the EU, through Ireland, to NI then mainland Britain, without a hard border?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by papa smurf
Why don't they just get a ferry straight to the UK.
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Indeed, they would have to go to Ireland, then NI and onto the mainland as there will be no checks because of the Common Travel Area. Actually, thinking about it, I don't think that they'd even need to bother going to NI, but it would probably be less risky to do so.
If they came from another country they are far more likely to be stopped by immigration.
Was there a time when either the ROI or NI weren't in the EU and the other was? Ireland joined on 1/1/73, not sure of the exact date we joined in 1973. If so, what did we do then?
Perhaps it didn't matter if we had a hard border anyway in 1973. AFAIK it was the Good Friday Agreement that led to it being removed the last time; i've only ever crossed it after the the GFA was in place.