IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS at London’s Stansted Airport believe that passport-free travel rules between Ireland and Britain are being exploited by illegal immigrants, criminals and extremists to gain entry to Britain.
Under the current situation, passengers arriving on flights from Ireland arriving at Stansted, and also at Gatwick airport, mingle with passengers from other destinations before reaching immigration desks.
However, Irish passengers are not vetted by immigration officers.
Because of the Common Travel Area (CTA) agreement, they, along with passengers from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, present their boarding cards and are given speedy entry via a channel next to immigration.
However, immigration officers in Stansted believe that passengers from other destinations have evaded UK immigration controls by buying a ticket from an Irish airport and then exiting Stansted by presenting an internet-delivered boarding pass for an Irish flight.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon last week asked British prime minister David Cameron if he was aware of concerns that the travel area agreement “allows illegal migrants, Islamists and terrorists into the country without their passports being checked”.
Saying that the Conservative MP had “raised an important point”, Mr Cameron said: “I accept that those routes can be open to abuse and we are determined to resolve that.
“The UK Border Agency is working closely with Ireland and others to make sure that that happens.”
Passport-free travel under the agreement offered “real economic and social benefits”, Mr Cameron said.
As a result, the UK wanted to ensure against abuse “without disadvantaging people” who had enjoyed its existence.
Mr Halfon told The Irish Times: “I have been told directly by immigration officers that there have been abuses and that the Special Branch is very concerned as well.”
Privately, sources close to the UK Border Agency admit that there is a problem at Stansted and Gatwick.
However, Heathrow is different since Irish passengers do not mingle with those from other destinations before they reach the baggage hall.
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: “Along with Ireland, we are working to strengthen the external CTA border, including increased data-sharing, closer alignment of visa regimes and electronic border systems.”
Saying that immigration controls in the UK were “ultimately” matters for the UK authorities, the Department of Justice said both governments were “unequivocal in their determination to preserve the CTA as a matter of major public policy in both jurisdictions”.
