Tories would replicate Irish government's immigration checks at NI border - saying Dublin has shown they are 'possible and necessary'

Alex Burghart told the News Letter that the searches conducted by Irish authorities on vehicles travelling into the Republic has shown “that such enforcement is possible and necessary”.

It comes amid growing concern about the Irish border becoming a “back door” into the United Kingdom, while both nations agree that there should be no infrastructure at land crossings.

However, Dublin regularly conducts checks on vehicles just across the border near Ravensdale – while the UK Home Office has focused its operations on transport hubs like Grand Central Station in Belfast, 50 miles away.

Gavin Robinson recently quizzed Home Office immigration officials on what they were doing to stop illegal entry to the UK across the Irish border. They argued that there were better outcomes from searching people at transport hubs, ports and airports.

The DUP leader subsequently welcomed clarification from the Home Office about the range of powers it has to enforce UK immigration laws in Northern Ireland, and questioned why they are not being more “effectively” deployed.

Now, the Conservatives say they would take a similar approach to the border to Dublin.

Alex Burghart, Kemi Badenoch’s de facto deputy, told the News Letter: “A future Conservative government would be prepared to order border authorities to perform checks close to the border.

“With their Operation Sonnet, the Republic has shown that such enforcement is possible and necessary.

“Whilst it is everyone’s interest to maintain the common travel area for British and Irish citizens we should not be prepared to accept an open backdoor into the UK.”

Since the Republic of Ireland left the United Kingdom, the two countries have had free movement for their own citizens under the Common Travel Area.

That means British and Irish citizens have the right to live, vote and access public services in the respective territories.

That right does not extend to foreign nationals, including those EU citizens who may have the right to live in the Republic of Ireland post-Brexit, but not in Northern Ireland.

These free movement rights also don’t extend to asylum seekers or refugees crossing the border.

After concerns in Dublin about asylum seekers entering the Republic via Northern Ireland, Irish immigration officials began a crackdown on illegal border crossings by foreign nationals.

In 2024, the TUV accused the Irish government of “rank hypocrisy”, when it emerged they had been returning illegal migrants to Belfast by train.

In February of that year, as part of Operation Sonnet, Garda National Immigration Bureau checkpoints on the M1 motorway at the border with Northern Ireland were carried out on on four separate days, according to a report from the Garda Commissioner to Ireland’s policing authority.

The report stated: “A total of 47 buses travelling southbound to Dublin were stopped and immigration checks carried out in respect of all passengers on board. From the 47 buses, a total of 25 persons were detected entering the State illegally, without the relevant visas or travel documents”.

All of the migrants were refused leave to land. All 25 were returned to the UK, 19 by ferry to Holyhead and 6 by train to Belfast.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson said the Irish government had displayed extraordinary hypocrisy by introducing the “worst possible” checks on the border – by racially profiling people.

Irish police had not explained how they identified illegal migrants entering the Republic from Northern Ireland without racially profiling travellers, after claims that white passengers were “bypassed” and ethnic minorities were asked for passports in recent searches.

At the time, Garda told the News Letter that a “human-rights based approach” is used during immigration operations at the border. But Mr Wilson said there is no other way that Irish immigration officials could be operating checks on the border other than “discriminating against people based on their colour and race” and that claims that checks are human rights compliant are “just words”.

However, the Home Office – which provides intelligence to Ireland for its operations – has avoided conducting any similar searches on traffic entering Northern Ireland. This is understood to be related to risk assessments from the PSNI, as well as political considerations.

Instead, the UK’s immigration officials conduct searches largely at bus and rail depots in Belfast.