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Common Travel Area
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The Common Travel Area is a passport-free zone that comprises the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The area's internal borders are subject to minimal or non-existent border controls and can normally be crossed by Irish and British citizens, Manx people and Channel Islanders with only minimal identity documents. The maintenance of the Area involves considerable co-operation on immigration matters between the British and the Irish authorities.
The Irish government has imposed immigration controls on people entering the state from the United Kingdom since 1997.
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Encyclopedia
The Common Travel Area is a passport-free zone that comprises the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The area's internal borders are subject to minimal or non-existent border controls and can normally be crossed by Irish and British citizens, Manx people and Channel Islanders with only minimal identity documents. The maintenance of the Area involves considerable co-operation on immigration matters between the British and the Irish authorities.
The Irish government has imposed immigration controls on people entering the state from the United Kingdom since 1997. These controls have been compulsory for air travellers, selective on sea crossings and occasional for land crossings. In 2008 the British government announced that they planned to impose similar controls on travellers entering the United Kingdom as of 2009, effectively bringing an end to the passport free zone.
History
The 1922 agreement
Prior to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 no passport controls had existed between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. British immigration law was enforced in Ireland in the same way as in the rest of the United Kingdom. With the imminent prospect of Irish independence in 1922, the British Home Office was disinclined to impose passport and immigration controls between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. However if the pre-1922 situation was to be continued, the Irish immigration authorities would have to continue to enforce British immigration policy after independence. The Irish Department for Home Affairs were found to be receptive to continuing with the status quo and an informal agreement to this effect was reached between the two sides in February 1923. Under this agreement each side would enforce the other's immigration decisions and the Irish authorities would be provided with a copy of Britain's suspect-codex (or 'Black Book') of persona non grata in the United Kingdom.
The agreement was initially provided for in law by which deemed the Irish Free State to be part of the United Kingdom for the purposes of immigration law. It was fully implemented in 1925 when legislation passed in both countries provided for the recognition of the other's landing conditions for foreigners. This may be considered to have been the high point of the Common Travel Area - although it was not called that at the time - as it almost amounted to a common visa area. A foreigner who had been admitted to one state could, unless his or her admission had been conditional upon not entering the other state, travel to the other with only minimal bureaucratic requirements.
The Common Travel Area was suspended on the outbreak of war in 1939, when travel restrictions were introduced between Britain and Ireland.
The 1952 agreement
After the war, the Irish re-instated their previous provisions allowing free movement. However the British declined to do so pending the agreement of a "similar immigration policy" in both countries. Consequently the British maintained immigration controls between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain up until 1952, to the consternation of Northern Ireland's Unionist population.
No agreement on a similar immigration policy was publicised at the time, but a year after the then Irish Minister for Justice referred to the lifting of immigration controls between the two islands as "a matter for the British themselves", the British began referring to the Common Travel Area in legislation for the first time. The content of the agreement appears to be that a foreigner would be refused entry to the United Kingdom if he or she wished to travel onward to the republic of Ireland (and vice-versa) and is provided for in relevant immigration law.
The Common Travel Area has meant that the republic has been required to follow changes in British immigration policy. This was notable in 1962 when Irish law was changed in response to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. The latter Act imposed immigration controls between the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries while in the republic the Aliens Order 1962 replaced Ireland's previous provision exempting all British subjects from immigration control, with one exempting only those born in the United Kingdom. The scope of the Irish provision was much more restrictive than the British legislation as it excluded from immigration control those in the United Kingdom who were not British citizens. This discrepancy between Britain's definition of a British citizen with a right to abode in the United Kingdom and Ireland's definition was not resolved until 1999.
Application
While British and Irish citizens enjoy the right to live in each other's countries under European Union law, the provisions which apply to them are generally more far reaching than those which apply to other European Economic Area nationals.
British citizens in Ireland
Under Irish law all British citizens — including Manxmen and Channel Islanders who are not entitled to take advantage of the European Union's Freedom of Movement provisions — are exempt from immigration control and are therefore immune from deportation. They were then, with limited exceptions, never treated as foreigners under Irish law.
Irish citizens in Britain
Prior to 1949 all Irish citizens were considered by British law to be British subjects. After Ireland left the Commonwealth of Nations in that year, British law was amended to give Irish citizens a similar status to Commonwealth citizens in the United Kingdom, notwithstanding that they had ceased to be such. Thus, much like British citizens in Ireland, Irish citizens in Britain have never been treated like foreigners. However Irish citizens have, like Commonwealth citizens, been subject to immigration control in Britain since the enactment of the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962. Unlike Commonwealth citizens however, Irish citizens have never been subject to entry control in the United Kingdom and have a presumed indefinite leave to remain if they move to the UK. They may, however, be subject to deportation from the UK upon the same lines as other European Economic Area nationals. In February 2007 the British government announced that a specially lenient procedure would apply to the deportation of Irish citizens compared to a more rigorous procedure that would be applied to other European Economic Area nationals.
Other European Economic Area nationals
Nationals of other member states of the European Economic Area have the right under European Union law to freely enter and reside in the United Kingdom and Ireland, subject only to minimum registration requirements. It is not required for such nationals to carry a passport for either entering the Common Travel Area or travelling within it, as their national identity cards are accepted as valid travel documents.
Other nationalities
While the Common Travel Area has for most of its history involved an open or relatively open border, this has never meant that someone who had legally entered one part of the area would be automatically entitled to legally enter another part. The Area, unlike the Schengen Agreement, provides no mechanism for a common visa system. The United Kingdom and the republic of Ireland operate entirely separate visa systems with distinct, though similar, entry requirements. A United Kingdom visa or work-permit will not allow a traveller entry to the republic of Ireland, nor vice-versa. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man do allow entry to holders of United Kingdom visas (with some exceptions) but do not treat holders of Irish visas the same way.
The Common Travel Area and the Schengen Area
In 1985 five member states of the then European Economic Community signed the Schengen Agreement on the gradual dropping of border controls between their respective countries. This agreement provided for the extension of the Benelux Passport Free Zone to France and Germany, broadly speaking, along the same lines as the Common Travel Area albeit one formalised in the form of the Schengen Treaty. Although the treaty was not implemented until 1995, two years later during the Amsterdam Intergovernmental Conference, all European Union member states except the United Kingdom and Ireland, and two non-member states Norway and Iceland had signed the Schengen Agreement. During those negotiations, which lead to Amsterdam Treaty and the incorporation of Schengen into the main body of European Union law, Britain and Ireland obtained an opt-out affirming their right to maintain systematic passport and immigration controls at their frontiers. If either or both the United Kingdom and Ireland were to join Schengen the Common Travel Area would come to an end. If one were to join without the other, the joining country would have to exercise border controls vis-à-vis the other thus ending the zone. If both were to join all the functions of the area would be subsumed into the Schengen provisions and the Area would cease to have any separate existence.
Britain has always opposed the lowering of its border controls as they believe their island status makes them better able to enforce immigration controls than continental European countries with "extensive and permeable land borders". In contrast, Ireland, while not signing the Schengen Treaty, has always looked more favourably on joining but has not done so in order to maintain the Common Travel Area and its open border with Northern Ireland. (Although somewhat paradoxically, in 1997 Ireland imposed selective identity and immigration controls on anyone arriving from the United Kingdom, measures which would not have been permitted if both countries were part of the Schengen Area). This is a position which is reflected in the Schengen opt-out secured by Britain and Ireland in the Amsterdam Treaty. While the protocol applies unconditionally to the United Kingdom, it only applies to Ireland for as long as the Common Travel Area is maintained.
The re-introduction of passport and identity controls
In 1997, Ireland changed its immigration legislation to allow immigration officers to examine (i.e. request identity documents from) travellers arriving in the republic from elsewhere in the Common Travel Area and to refuse them permission to land if they are not entitled to enter. Although this is stated to only apply to people other than Irish and British citizens, both of latter groups are effectively covered as they may be required to produce identity documents to prove that they are entitled to the Common Travel Area arrangements. Although it is difficult to be exact about the nature of current border checks - due largely to official reluctance to clearly state the nature of the controls - fixed controls are only maintained at ports and airports while targeted controls are conducted along the land border in what are referred to as "intelligence driven operations".
In July 2008 the UK Border Agency published a consultation paper on the Common Travel Area which envisages the imposition of identity and immigration controls on all air and sea crossings between the island of Ireland and Great Britain. Being part of the proposed electronic Borders system, these controls will be accompanied by an Advance Passenger Information System on all flights and sea journeys between the island of Ireland and Great Britain. The completion of this system is due for 2014.
While passport controls are being brought in between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the nature of possible identity controls between Great Britain on the one hand, and the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Northern Ireland on the other, is not altogether clear. The last of these is the most controversial as Northern Ireland is a constituent part of the United Kingdom, with a prominent Ulster Unionist describing the proposed arrangements as "intolerable and preposterous". The nature of identity checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain has been characterised by the British government as follows:
- "Section 14 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 introduced a new power that will allow the police to capture passenger, crew and service information on air and sea journeys within the United Kingdom. ... It is expected that this police power will only apply to air and sea routes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Passengers will not be required to use passports, but may be required to produce one of several types of documentation, including passports, when travelling, to enable the carrier to the meet the requirements of a police request."
As far as the land border is concerned the UK border agency has indicated that the border will be "lightly controlled". and a 2008 joint statement by both governments confirmed that there are no plans for fixed controls on either side of the border.
See also
External links
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