The United Kingdom’s open land border with the Republic of Ireland is under the microscope after it emerged the alleged Belfast knifeman who is said to have tried an “attempted beheading” entered the country through that porous route.
The revelation that 30-year-old Hadi Alodid, said to be a former policeman from a “prominent” Sudanese family, travelled to the United Kingdom through the “backdoor” migrant route through European Union member the Republic of Ireland has prompted a hard look at the border. Alodid, who appeared in court this week over his alleged role in an “attempted beheading” in Belfast, the outrage over which has prompted riots, technically entered the UK illegally, but over an unchecked land border crossing.
As things stand, Britain’s air and sea ports are protected in the normal international way by border force officers, while would-be illegal migrants attempt to enter the nation through devious means. While the greatest source of illegal migrants may be through visa abuse — entering as a student or tourist and simply never leaving, for instance — officers are also on the patrol for highly dangerous entry methods such as being smuggled in the back of goods vehicles, or by human trafficking small boats on the south coast.
Different methods of entry are favoured by various migrant groups depending on whether they intend to throw themselves on the generosity of the British state’s welfare handouts, or if they intend to enter the country undetected for the purpose of entering the black market economy, or worse.
But another route is possible. Would-be illegal migrants who have made it as far as the European Union can abuse its internal open borders ‘Schengen’ area to fly to the Republic of Ireland, which shares the island of Island in the British Isles with the United Kingdom. The border between the Republic and Northern Ireland is over 300 miles long and has hundreds of road crossings, and has no border posts or checks because of common travel arrangements dating to Irish independence in the 1920s.
A non-UK or Irish citizen crossing that border without the right to enter the United Kingdom does so illegally, but they are effectively free to do so because there is no border control. In Alodid’s case, it is believed he flew from Paris to Dublin and crossed the border into the United Kingdom in February 2023 by bus, after which he claimed asylum in Northern Ireland.
As noted by The Guardian, despite entering the UK illegally his asylum application was accepted by the government, as applications from almost all Sudanese arrivals are. They reported:
…asylum applicants from Sudan have the highest initial grant rate – 94% – of all nationalities applying for refuge in the UK. This is because of documented evidence of an ongoing civil war, ethnic violence, targeted killings and systemic sexual violence across much of the country.
The Times adds it was “supremely easy” for Sudanese migrants to come to Britain in 2023 because the outbreak of a civil war in that country led to civil servants in London waving asylum applications through, accepting applications without even interviewing arrivals or security background checks because the government was trying to clear backlogs.
Unsurprisingly, Britain’s porous “backdoor” border is being abused by human traffickers, who advertise the low-risk crossing to customers. The Daily Telegraph cites in their investigation into the route advertisements posted to social media by Albanian smugglers that Dublin airport offers: “Every day, only success. Reserve your place. Guaranteed passage to England.”
The report states the £7,000 ($9,400) smuggler fee includes fake identity cards for the illegal migrants breaking into the United Kingdom.
The intense attention on this backdoor route triggered by Monday’s alleged attempted murder in Belfast appears to have prompted promises of government action, but what the state can actually do — or more accurately, is willing to do — is unclear. As things stand, the key stone of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland is the Common Travel Area open border, and neither government is likely to want to do anything to change that.
So the border is likely to remain open, and it remains the case that in practically all cases once an illegal migrant has actually made it onto United Kingdom territory and claimed asylum, they are never then removed.
Nevertheless, the Home Office said on Wednesday it would intensify Operation Gull, which seeks to detain and remove illegals abusing the Common Travel Area. On Thursday, the UK, Irish, and Northern Ireland goverments had three-way teleconference talks on how to “prevent abuse” of the border. The Daily Echo stated Belfast’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said there were “questions to be asked about vetting, about the immigration policy in the UK, the cooperation with the Irish Government, how those checks happen when people arrive into Dublin.”
The Irish government at least appeared willing to cooperate on the matter, saying there was a “significant” security effort underway at Dublin airport, to catch would-be illegals from proceeding to the United Kingdom as they arrived in the Republic of Ireland. A spokesman is reported to have said the Republic wanted to work together to “prevent abuse” to protect the legitimacy of the open border with the United Kingdom, saying: “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… Minister O’Callaghan discussed the importance of cross border cooperation in protecting the Common Travel Area for both Ireland and the UK”.
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