Government to 'intensify' crackdown on illegal migrants in NI

The government is set to "intensify" its crackdown on illegal migrants living in Northern Ireland.

According to a government source, the Home Office is ramping up immigration enforcement efforts to "track down, detain, arrest and remove" illegal migrants.

This will see a "surge in intelligence-led operations" carried out by Immigration Enforcement officers and Border Force personnel along Common Travel Area routes.

The Home Office claims that nearly 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed over the past year.

This comes amid mounting pressure on the government from unionist parties to tackle the number of migrants entering Northern Ireland illegally from the Republic of Ireland.

According to government figures, since Labour came to power there have been 2,682 "raids to detain and remove" illegal migrants, which the government claims is a 16% increase compared with the final 21 months of the Conservative government.

As a result of those operations, the number of people detained or arrested for immigration offences has risen to 2,233.

According to the government, around 70% of immigration enforcement activity is carried out through Operation Gull, an intelligence-led Common Travel Area (CTA) operation at Northern Ireland's domestic air and sea ports.

As a result of this operation, more than 900 immigration offenders were detected last year, allegedly "abusing and circumventing the Common Travel Area rules".

"The three most frequently encountered nationalities were Romanian (83), Albanian (44) and Afghan (30)," the government source said.

Meanwhile, the number of asylum seekers in supported accommodation in Northern Ireland now stands at 2,379, down from previous levels.

The CTA is an arrangement dating back to 1922 when 26 of Ireland's 32 counties were granted a large degree of independence by the UK. It gives British and Irish citizens reciprocal rights in each others' countries.

Those rights include largely unrestricted, passport-free travel between the UK, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man for British and Irish citizens.

People from other countries need to show a passport - and in some cases a visa - to enter the UK, Republic of Ireland and Crown Dependencies. It is unclear how Alodid passed border checks at Dublin Airport after arriving from Paris.

Without more formal controls the Irish border is a relatively open immigration route. It is policed under "Operation Gull", a long-running, intelligence-led initiative operated by the UK Home Office, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Police Scotland, and Ireland's police force, the Garda Síochána.

If someone is found without the right documents to be in the CTA they can be detained under UK immigration powers and returned to the Republic of Ireland.

However if that person was to claim asylum then they cannot be deported and would be entered into the UK asylum system while their claim is evaluated.

In a statement, the Irish Department of Justice said that the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have a "shared responsibility and a shared interest in protecting the operation" of the Common Travel Area (CTA).

"It offers great advantages to our people on a social and economic level," the department said.

"The invisible border on the island of Ireland is among the most tangible gains of the peace process and is essential to the continuing normalisation of relationships.

"At the UK-Ireland Summit in March, it was agreed that further steps would be taken to ensure that the Common Travel Area (CTA) remains secure by working together to expand immigration data-sharing arrangements, particularly to prevent the abuse of CTA free movement by those not entitled to its benefits."