TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN said he spoke to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday about the Common Travel Area (CTA) and the need to ensure the asylum system is not “exploited”.
Since last Monday’s knife attack in Belfast, and the subsequent outbreak of violence, UK politicians have continued to take aim at the CTA, debating the border issue and immigration checks in Northern Ireland.
A number of UK politicians have pointed to the CTA between the UK and Ireland as a weak spot and “backdoor route” into the UK, but senior Irish politicians have defended the longstanding agreement in recent days.
The Common Travel Area agreement between both countries was established in 1922 and reaffirmed in 2019.
It allows Irish and British citizens to travel freely between the UK and Ireland and reside in either jurisdiction.
During their phone call on Friday, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the CTA, said the Taoiseach.
He said Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan will be speaking with the UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmoodon on the issue in the days to come.
Data-sharing and cooperation
Martin told reporters that the “situation works both ways”, stating:
“People will abuse the Common Travel Area. What is important is there is data sharing, intelligence sharing.”
The PSNI and the Garda Síochána must work together, alongside the British police,” said Martin, who added there is a need to “keep a rigorous focus on this”.
“My own view is that people got the wrong issue here, in terms of it’s not necessarily the border [that] is the problem here. I think the issue is the complementarity between respective treatment or processes around asylum seekers. I think that is the critical piece here,” said the Taoiseach.
The CTA allows for people to travel both ways across the border, said the Taoiseach who added that both governments need to “vigilant about that” and work together to ensure the asylum system “is not exposed, and that it’s more robust”.
The Taoiseach said immigration checks in airports in the Republic have been “very strong” in the last five years, with Martin stating there is increasing evidence that fewer people are coming into Ireland via air travel now.
“There are quite a number coming through the north, but equally it can work the other way as well, and no one has a hard factual basis for it,” he told reporters.
“That is why it’s absolutely imperative that we have a very proactive and intense coordination between the British and Irish governments, because the CTA is so important to our citizens… we have to protect that and not allow it to be undermined,” said Martin.