Sir, – I would not be losing much sleep over the UK government’s decision to introduce a US-style visa waiver for non-Irish EU citizens. To start with, since such persons do not have the automatic right to be in the UK, some legal provision was inevitable. It’s how it is enforced that matters, if indeed it is enforced at all.
Let’s say the UK government has some real concerns about EU nationals passing unchecked to the UK. If so, then it’s pretty obvious that the concern relates to them fetching up in England rather than in Northern Ireland.
In terms of operational efficiency, enforcement at the land border is a non-runner, given its size.
The UK, moreover, has already made it clear that there will be no border posts. It also seems unlikely that senior PSNI officers will use scarce resources on a trawl for people who look “a wee bit foreign”.
What’s left? Both operationally and in terms of policy imperatives, even before considering the Belfast Agreement, the only logical place for implementing this law is where the movement of people can actually be managed. This points towards the air and sea ports between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Haven’t we been here before? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN O’SULLIVAN,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – The most striking aspect of Britain’s plan to introduce a US-style visa waiver system for non-Common Travel Area nationals entering Northern Ireland is the uncomfortable questions that it fails to address.
If I visit Derry with my EU citizen spouse, and it is discovered that she does not have this travel authorisation, what happens to her? Is she escorted up Buncrana Road by the PSNI and deposited on the other side of the Border? Is she detained and sent to the immigration detention centre in Larne pending deportation back to her country of citizenship?
This policy was pushed through by MPs in London as ignorant of the realities on the Irish Border as the Boundary Commission that created it in the first place. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN SHAW,
Zurich,
Switzerland.