Let UK do its own border dirty work - Controlling back door entry to UK

TWO of the wildest claims knowingly advanced before Britain voted on EU membership in June were that secession would give Britain an extra £350m a week to spend and that independence would return control of Britain’s borders to the people of Britain. 

The £350m-a-week claim has been sent back to the colourful, exciting place the bewildered go to renew their fantasies; like a child’s letter to Santa Claus it served a passing need even if only to distract and defer reality. It was and is complete bunkum. Now the claim about Britain taking control of their borders is another of the red-white-and-blue porkies used to mislead the British electorate. Britain wants to shift frontline immigration controls to our ports and airports if the reintroduction of a hard border between the Republic and the North is to be avoided.

It might be sensationalist, though not by any means as sensationalist as some of the claims made by the “Leave” campaign, to suggest that this push-back-the-perimeter idea might mean that the appalling refguee camp at Calais — The Jungle — might move to Clones or some ailing border community looking ever-more like a ghost town because of the post-Brexit vote collapse of sterling.

The alacrity with which Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald seemed to confirm that the Government was comfortable with this idea is not appropriate. Ms Fitzgerald said it was “not anything surprising” that both governments would work to strengthen Ireland’s external borders after Brexit, to tackle illegal immigration into the UK. This position, unfortunately, suggests that the Government might collude with Britain to undermine one of four EU core principles — the free movement of people. Remember, after Brexit the British idea of an illegal immigrant will include workers from Europe — possibly Ireland — and anyone who might offend the sensibilities of an increasingly strident English nationalism.

There is a real and complex issue to be dealt with here, one that will require an EU-wide solution. It is unacceptable that Britain tacitly suggests that unless we act as their border guards, that we establish a cordon sanitaire, that the hard border stretching over 400km that once divided this island might be reimposed. Apart from the fact that such a process would fly in the face of cornerstone EU principles the costs, as we learnt during the IRA terror campaigns, would be enormous — money far better spent trying to resolve the refugee crisis or more or less anything else.

Britain’s strongest card, however, is the fact that a border on this island would be the only land border between the UK and the EU and inevitably a backdoor to the UK. Prime Minister Theresa May has welcomed the idea of a hard Brexit. Maybe we should help facilitate that ambition by refusing to act as dupes enforcing the UK’s isolationist policies. We should leave the border as it is and if Britain wants to block immigrants let them do so at the airports and ferry ports of Northern Ireland. As NI voted to remain in the EU that would open a terrible can of worms. It would, however, be an honest recognition of some of the ugly consequences of Brexit. Let’s not even think of doing Britain’s dirty work on this one.