Jeux Sans Frontieres 3
Back in July the blog commented on Gordon Brown's proposal for a new border police force, which appeared to be destined to operate everywhere except on the only land border the UK has. Now the Irish Times has reported on the demise of the Common Travel Area as Britain adopts an e-borders system. There will be no checks on the land border, but the days of no ID travel are numbered. To be honest most of the times I fly across I have to produce some kind of ID, although if I sail across with the car my passport-less offspring are not thrown overboard.
However Jim Allister is concerned that the e-borders plan could mean citizens of Northern Ireland being asked to show passports when they fly or sail to Great Britain. The Home Office says there are no "immediate plans" for passport checks on passengers travelling from the Irish Republic to Britain. They are however exploring the potential for additional checks on passengers travelling within the Common Travel area, whatever that means.
Some information from Dublin suggests that when the British e-Borders system is fully developed it will necessitate all air and sea passengers being in possession of a valid passport to facilitate a journey within the CTA. I'm not sure whether that applies just to passengers from Dublin and Belfast, or if it implies that in the future a passenger flying from, say, London to Newcastle will need either a passport or one of the new ID cards. I shall keep you posted if I find out anymore.
UPDATE: A Home Office statement says "There are no plans to require domestic passengers to produce passports on all domestic air and sea journeys". So does that mean NI passengers won't have to produce one to sail to Stranraer?
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