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UK and Ireland plan border checks | UK and Ireland plan border checks |
(30 minutes later) | |
The first formal border checks between Britain and the Irish Republic in more than 80 years have been proposed. | |
Full passport inspections could be part of the revisions, a Home Office consultation paper has said. | Full passport inspections could be part of the revisions, a Home Office consultation paper has said. |
These would apply to those travelling by air and sea, but could also include more immigration checks between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. | |
But the governments said there were no plans for checkpoints to be reintroduced along that land border. | |
The scheme is expected to target attempted illegal immigration rather than domestic travellers. | |
The need to produce some proof of identity for travellers is aimed at foreign nationals rather than those living in the Common Travel Area (CTA), established in 1925. | |
Separate searches | |
The governments said checks would be made "on passengers and their documents" arriving and departing "on sea and air routes". | |
CTA residents and foreign passengers could be separated on arrival into channels similar to those already in place for European passengers on international flights. | |
The paper also suggested laws could be proposed to allow searches of vehicles travelling to and from the Irish Republic. | |
And airlines and ferry operators could be fined for carrying passengers to the UK who did not have appropriate documents, it added. | |
Measures including "state-of-the-art border technology, joint sea and port operations and the continued exchange of intelligence" would be used, according to a statement by UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Dermot Ahern, the Irish minister for justice, equality and law reform. | |
"We are both introducing electronic border management systems so we can count people in and out of the country, and identify those people who may be of interest to our law-enforcement authorities," the statement added. | |
"We are committed to preserving the Common Travel Area and its benefits for legitimate travellers." |