Are the Border & Agency Services prepared to cope?

[Benedikte2]

I am a Remainder and am presuming the majority of the Brexiters are concerned about limiting immigration.
Is this going to be possible given the huge reduction in staff numbers and our enormous borders? The coastline is under patrolled and very long, France is more than likely to stop regulating the Channel ports and then there is the Irish border.
Last July I returned from a holiday in the Irish Republic via Luton Airport. My friend and I and another couple were the last off the plane because we needed assistance and had to wait. The landing area was deserted by the time we were disembarked and it was raining and very dark (11pmish). We made our way to the nearest entry (unlocked/unsupervised) clutching our passports expecting to go through immigration checks. Instead we found ourselves in the baggage collection area. All of us had entered the UK without any check whatsoever!

[MumOnTheRunCatchingUp]

Ooh a goady thread.

[VikingVolva]

As we are non-Schengen, it'll probably make little difference. Especially if we remain/rejoin EFTA and EEA who also have visa free travel across the zone.

[Mistigri]

There are no passport checks on arrival from the Republic of Ireland. It's not even an EU issue (although it will become one now) - there is a separate common travel area between the UK and Ireland.

There are reasons to believe that all the stuff about controlling borders is complete bollocks and not achievable with current resources - but this isn't one of them.

[OlennasWimple]

What Misti said about the Common Travel Area. But no, we don't have a border agency resources and deployed to return to pre-freedom of movement days, and won't be able to get there in two years time either

[TheSparrowhawk]

Nothing at all will change with the borders.

[TheSparrowhawk]

If Britain tries to restrict movement of EU citizens then we might as well all just dig a hole and wait to die. Because what would happen then is that the EU would close its borders to British people, trade would stagnate, duties and tariffs would go up and there would be a Depression to rival 1929.

The EU could quite rightly claim not to give a shit if Britain goes down the toilet, so therefore Britain will have to give the EU all sorts of concessions to ensure the borders stay open.

So, we've given away a right we already had and no we'll have to buy it back at a very steep price.

Smart move, leavers. Thanks for that.

[Patapouf]

I'm praying (as an atheist ) that we rejoin as part of the EEA. kippers can shove that up their arses, freedom of movement is my favourite thing about the EU.

[Madbengalmum]

No difference.

[Benedikte2]

Actually if you check the immigration regulations it states that people entering the UK by sea or air from Ireland need to show photographic ID or passports and visas if from non EU countries, despite there being no boarder controls between NI and the Republic of Ireland. The fact that Brits and EU citizens are waved through does not affect the argument -- these are separated from the non EU people who are subject to scrutiny.
Guess the Irish internal border is too hard to patrol but all who travel on to mainland UK have to arrive either by sea or air.

[OlennasWimple]

Travelers need to have the right documentation (passport to price nationality, visa to prove eligibility etc) but in practice there are few checks at the UK border (the presumption being that Ireland has done the necessary checks to ensure entitlement to be in Ireland, and carriers have done checks to ensure eligibility to enter the UK)

[t4gnut]

Short answer is no, there is no structure to manage border controls.

However seeing as exit becomes increasingly unlikely and even if we were freedom of movement would be a requirement of entering the EU trading area its probably not an issue.

[Normandy144]

Yup I'm with Patapouf! As a Remainer I'm clinging to the hope we get a Norway or Swiss deal and are forced to keep freedom of movement. The govt can then put in place this fucking Australian points system that they seem so obsessed about on the rest of the non-EU migrants. Why they haven't done it before I don't know, maybe so they can continue to use immigrants as scapegoats.

We've basically cut off our noses to spite our face because there were no advantages to the Norway/Swiss models, but it is what it is, so it's the best we can hope for.

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

I think there's already a points system in place for non-EU migrants. You have to have a job paying over £21k to be allowed in.

[Normandy144]

whatsgoingoneh you are of course correct, and as someone with a spouse who has both an EU and Canadian passport you can probably guess which route we took when moving back to the UK. For the average person though the immigration process doensnt effect them and they are hugely uninformed on what happens. The govt could in theory make no changes to it and simply rebrand it as a points system with a few tweaks here and there.

[OlennasWimple]

The points system for non-EU is for work, study and youth exchange schemes. Family, ancestry and asylum are not part of it, though do have requirements (which could be turned into a points system, by presenting it as such - eg you need 50 points to qualify, and earning £X gets Y points, plus Z points for having a document proving the marriage)