We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A NORTHERN IRELAND human rights group has lodged an equality law complaint over cross-border immigration checks, which it says involve racial profiling.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice says that Translink, which operates buses and trains between Ireland and Northern Ireland, is facilitating discriminatory passport checks on its services.
Despite the common travel area arrangements in place between the UK and Ireland, officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau carry out passport checks on buses southbound from Newry and Belfast to Dublin.
The group says that “witness and victim testimony indicates that these checks are frequently conducted on the basis of (at times quite blatant) racial profiling”, where passengers that appear Irish are not asked for ID but ethnic minority travellers are.
Under the Immigration Act 2004, journeys within the common travel area are passport-free for British and Irish citizens, but non-nationals are required to produce a passport. A Garda spokesperson emphasised that “the common travel area arrangement is applicable only to Irish and UK citizens”.
In practice, the group points out, “there is no way of telling the difference” between nationals and non-nationals without checking passports. The organisation says that it has evidence that Gardai frequently single out travellers “on the basis of skin colour or other ethnic attributes” when conducting these checks.
Úna Boyd, the Committee on the Administration of Justice’s Immigration Project Coordinator, said “it seems that the hard border already exists for those who are targeted due to factors such as their skin colour or accent”.
TheJournal.ie has spoken to several cross-border commuters who agree that travellers with an Irish accent have no trouble passing the checks even without ID, whereas those perceived as foreign are closely questioned.
Checks are usually only carried out on buses crossing into Louth, and are rare to non-existent on trains or other road crossings.
Although cross-border checks date back many years, the Committee on the Administration of Justice and migrants’ rights groups south of the border have recorded a surge in complaints about checks over the past year or so.
Deputy Director Daniel Holder told TheJournal.ie that checks appeared to have ceased for “a couple of years” before returning with “no explanation” in recent months.
While there is no evidence that the reported increase in checks is connected to Brexit, it comes at a sensitive time.
Boyd said that “the facilitation of passport controls on the island of Ireland also aids in introducing an element of a hard border at a time when a no-deal Brexit seems possible and such a subject is a matter of extreme concern to many people”.
The Committee on the Administration of Justice says that Translink has a legal duty not to facilitate racial discrimination, and to consider whether its decisions comply with its legally binding equality scheme.
The group has lodged a formal complaint with the publicly owned company on behalf of 17 directly affected passengers and may escalate it to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
Last year, a black County Down resident complained to the Commission after being stopped by UK immigration officers four times on one return ferry journey between Belfast and Glasgow.
Immigration officers from the UK Home Office also carry out immigration checks within the common travel area, although official guidance says that “Home Office IOs do not have all of their normal powers” on these routes and that “individuals are under no obligation to comply” with questioning.
A Home Office spokespersons said: “There are no immigration controls whatsoever on the Northern Ireland – Ireland land border.”
The group has also written to the Garda Commissioner, the Policing Authority, and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, supported by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
Translink has been approached for comment.
A Garda spokesperson said: “All persons arriving into this jurisdiction are subject to immigration controls; however citizens of Ireland and the UK are entitled to avail of the common travel area agreement, which allows for unrestricted movement by citizens of either jurisdiction across the common border without passport/immigration controls.”
“Citizens of Ireland or the UK may be required to assert their right to travel by producing a relevant document. The common travel area arrangement is applicable ONLY to Irish and UK citizens,” the spokesperson said.
The common travel area was traditionally a working arrangement between the UK and Irish authorities and is only partly enshrined in law. The two governments have increasingly worked together in recent years to tackle border security.
The British and Irish governments signed a memorandum of understanding on the arrangements earlier this year, but legal experts have called this a “bronze option” that is much weaker than a legally binding treaty.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
In this case the Gardai are 100% correct.
@Paul White.: No they are not! They should only be performing immigration checks at entry points into the common travel area, not at points in between it. If they suspect illegal immigrants are resident, then they should only re-examine their documentation where they are resident. No Irish citizen, from either side of the border, legally needs to carry id to prove they are, never mind a passport. This is lazy racial profiling by guards who are, again, unaccountable.
@Brin: Every Man, Woman and Childs right to safety on this island are more important than your feelings.
@Paul White.: Exactly. Ostracizing and profiling citizens based on colour, accent etc will make them feel marginalized and angry and help to push them into the arms of extremists organizations. It needs to be stopped.
@Brin: ah put a sock in it
@Brin: still need a passport to go anywhere in the EU so what’s the difference
@Gerard Heery: EU isn’t a common travel area. Would be different if we were in the schengen but we’re not. You can, however, travel from France, to Germany, to Poland etc without ID checks.
@Brin: yes they are right it is we known illigal immigration happens what is to stop someone coming in to either the Republic or Northern Ireland and travelling across the border whether we like it or not we are two separate countries,
@Kian David Griffin: that is not true you can be stopped and asked at anytime for your documents and if that was the case every Tom dick and Harry could land in say ilaly and just flee to anyware unchecked
@Kian David Griffin: Your profiled when you travel to the US .
@nelliekel: as of yet I’ve not been except at airports.
@Paul Whelan: Don’t they want social media history and all now? I don’t think I’ll be left in
@Gerard Heery: Isn’t that more for security, rather than immigration control…?
Unfortunately, in this age of terrorism against civilian targets, we have to allow our police & security personnel to do routine checks on civilian traffic.
As a white Irish male, I had to fill out P.TA cards on planes, including US carriers, entering UK, interviewed by I.Os, & delayed, during the “Troubles”, when British & Irish terrorists were causing death & destruction. These were checks on all Irish travellers only.
Similar general police checks operated in France, including at hotels & guest houses, during the Algerian troubles.
I have no problem with such controls, as such checks hamper people with criminal intent.
We all have to accept that it is in the interest of public safety, & would be complaining if police were found to be sitting on their hands after some criminal act.
@William Kelly: Well put, it’s only those who abuse the system who should fear these very necessary checks. Equally the british have concerns about illegal immigration through the Irish back door.
“The issue of migrants entering the UK through the Irish “back door” became an issue especially in the wake of the deadly attack on London Bridge in 2017 when it was confirmed that one of the terrorists, Rachid Redouane, was named as a resident of Ireland.”
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/politics/immigration-britain-via-irish-border
@William Kelly: No, racial profiling only hampers people with criminal intent if they’re the wrong race.
@William Kelly: Terrorism was more prevalent 30 years ago than it is now, just fyi :)
About time
If your not in the country illegally and your not doing amything illegal then no reason to get offended or call it racial profiling, its the police force doing what they can to keep us safe
And the point is?
This is only news if you’re white.
If I was travelling between within the schengen countries say France and spain and I was asked for ID because I don’t look French or Spanish , is this racial profiling , if so what’s the problem?
I would expect it.
Hardly racial profiling. Let them do their jobs.
Refuse to show them your ID, simple, there’s nothing they can do. They’re acting outside their legal jurisdiction by requesting ID while a person is traveling across a land border between the UK and Ireland. Immigration controls can only be in place at air or sea ports under the CTA Agreement, asking for ID for the purposes of verifying immigration status anywhere other then a sea or air port is violates your rights to freedom of movement. The exception being if there is evidence backed suspicion that you may be in the UK or Ireland illegally where you can be asked to provide documents that prove your entitlement to reside/work in the UK or Ireland.
@Peej: so you are saying an illigal can just travel from UK to Ireland unchecked maybe you should check facts it’s onlyan agreement for Irish and UK citizens not every Tom dick and Mohammed
@Peej: You wrong my friend , Customs can stop any one .
@Peej: Let me walk you through your “logic”. Refusing to show them ID you are creating “evidence backed suspicion” that you may be here illegally where all the evidence they need is your refusal to prove you are entitled to avail from CTA agreement.
They simply do their job while applying common sense.
I do look foreign, talk with foreign accent and get stopped nearly every time be it airport or bus while I am Irish citizen. Do I have a problem with that? Absolutely not. I am glad they do a good job protecting all of us.
Non story pedalled by PC fools
The PC ‘Human Rights’ brigade will be telling us it’s discrimination to support your own country over the country they’re playing against in a football match next!
Meanwhile, four of our ‘culturally enriching’ impoverished Nigerian “refugees” run down a border farmer and cattle, driving a BMW no less!
Members of An Garda Síochána have begun investigations after three cows were killed in a hit-and-run incident in Co. Monaghan yesterday.
An Garda Síochána said:
“Gardaí in Emyvale are investigating a hit-and-run road traffic collision which resulted in the death of two cows.
According to local radio station Northern Sound the incident is believed to have involved a driver who was evading Gardaí.
The radio station reports that the driver met a farmer moving a herd of 80 dairy cows after milking.
In an attempt to get by, he drove through the herd, seriously injuring a number of cattle, and slightly damaging two cars.
have your say