howard mcsweeney1 wrote:Interesting piece from Charlie on future border plans with the two Irelands.
If he carries on at this rate our (sic) Charlie is going to run out of backs of fag packets to write his cunning schemes on!
Let's go back to the late seventies and see how the common travel area (CTA) worked.
I'm sitting at Tn3 and get a West African in transit to Eire who claims he is going on holiday to visit 'the land of his ancestors' or some such rubbish. I search his bags and find his school certificates and a letter (probably forged) from a previous employer stating what a good worker he is.
It's a weekend so I 'phone the Head of the Irish Immigration Service at home. His wife answers. Mr ****** is on the golf course, could I tell her what it's all about. I tell her. She says 'he doesn't sound at all like the sort of person we want over here. If you want to refuse him entry I'll tell Mr ****** when he comes home'.
I put man on next plane back to West Africa knowing that even if he appeals against my decision he doesn't stand a chance as I have refused him whilst in transit to the Irish Republic where the authorities have informed me he is not acceptable.
Let's now look to Charlie's soft border of the future and the CTA.
A penniless Eastern European arrives at Dublin Airport and claims he is exercising his right under the Treaty of Rome to seek employment in Eire. The Irish can do nothing to refuse him entry. Within a week he is in Slough working illegally.
The ONLY solution is bio-metric ID cards for ALL in UK to allow us to identify who should be here, what conditions there are attached to their presence and what their entitlements are e.g. housing, education, health, driving qualifications etc. It's not sodding rocket science.