Common Travel Area

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The Common Travel Area includes the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Republic of Ireland

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. Persons who have acquired citizenship but were born elsewhere still have to carry a passport or some proof of their British or Irish citizenship. The maintenance of the Area involves considerable co-operation on immigration matters between the British and Irish authorities. There has never been a formal agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom regarding the Common Travel Area. It has been reported that the arrangement will change to some extent from 2009.

[edit] History

[edit] The 1922 agreement

Prior to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 no passport controls had existed between 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.^[1]

The agreement was initially provided for in law by^[2] 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^[3]. 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.

[edit] The 1952 agreement

After the war, the Irish re-instated their previous provisions allowing free movement between Ireland and the United Kingdom^[4]. However the British declined to do so pending the agreement of a "similar immigration policy"^[5] in both countries. Consequently the British maintained immigration controls between the island of Ireland and Great Britain up until 1952, to the consternation of Northern Ireland's Unionist population^[6].

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^[7]. The content of the agreement appears to be that a foreigner would be refused entry to the United Kingdom if he or she wishes to travel onward to the Republic of Ireland (and vice-versa)^[8] and is provided for in relevant immigration law.^[9]

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^[10], with one exempting only those born in the United Kingdom. The scope of the Irish provision was much more restrictive than the British legislation and also excluded from immigration control those in the United Kingdom who were not British citizens.^[11] 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.^[12]

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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^[13], never treated as foreigners under Irish law.

[edit] 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 citizens of the Republic of Ireland 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 were never treated as foreign. 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.^[14] 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.^[15]

[edit] 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 the Republic of Ireland, subject only to minimum registration requirements. It is not required for such nationals to carry a passport for both entering the Common Travel Area and travelling between Britain and Ireland, as national identity cards are accepted as valid travel documents.^[16]

[edit] 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 Republic of Ireland visas the same way.

[edit] Border controls

In 1997 Ireland changed its immigration legislation to allow immigration officers to examine (i.e. request identity documents from) travellers arriving to the Republic from elsewhere in the Common Travel Area and to refuse them permission to land if they are not entitled to enter the state^[17]. 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^[18] while targeted controls are conducted along the land border in what are referred to as "intelligence driven operations".^[19]

[edit] The Common Travel Area and the Schengen Area

In 1985 five member states of the then European Economic Community signed an agreement in Schengen in Luxembourg 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".^[20] 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.^[21] (Although somewhat paradoxically, in 1997 Ireland imposed selective identity and immigration controls on anyone arriving from the United Kingdom^[17], 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.^[22]

[edit] Future prospects

On 24 October 2007 it was reported that the UK intended to introduce passport checks between Britain and Ireland from 2009 onwards, as part of a proposed electronic border control system, thus putting the future of the Common Travel Area in doubt.^[23][24] It is not clear how this will affect the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, or Northern Ireland. The Irish Minister of Justice, Brian Lenihan has said that he believes the Travel Area may in fact be strengthened as the result the adoption of electronic border control system in both countries.^[25] The former Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, assured Dáil Éireann that there are no plans to introduce passport controls on the land border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.^[26] Reaction from Unionists in Northern Ireland was angry. Jim Allister, a former Democratic Unionist and Member of the European Parliament told The Times that it would be "intolerable and preposterous if citizens of the UK had to present a passport to enter another part of the UK".^[23]

[edit] References and further reading

• Bernard Ryan, "The Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland" (2001) 64 (6) Modern Law Review 855 (pdf)
• J. M. Evans, "Immigration Act 1971", The Modern Law Review (1972) 35 (5) 508

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Schengen Treaty
• Foreign relations of the Republic of Ireland
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom
  • British national identity card
• Irish nationality law
• British nationality and the Republic of Ireland
• British nationality law
• Republic of Ireland-United Kingdom border

[edit] External links

• Irish Government description of the Common Travel Area
• Text of the Treaty of Amsterdam (see protocol B)