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The 'Common Travel Area' is a ''passport-free zone'' which comprises the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. The area's internal borders are subject only to minimal or non-existent border controls and can normally be crossed by Irish and British citizens (including 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 Irish authorities. There has never been a formal agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom regarding the Common Travel Area and passports have never been required in the zone (except during wartime).

Contents

History

The 1922 agreement

The 1952 agreement

Application

The British in Ireland

The Irish in Britain

Other European Economic Area nationals

Other nationalities

Border controls

The Common Travel Area and the Schengen Area

References and further reading

Notes

See also

External links

History

The 1922 agreement

Prior to the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 no passport controls had ever 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 an amendment to Britain's immigration legislation^[2] which deemed the Irish Free State to be part of the United Kingdom for the purposes of immigration law. But it was only fully implemented in 1925 when legislation passed in both states 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.

The 1952 agreement

After the war the Irish re-instated their previous provisions allowing free movement between Ireland 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 existence of the Common Travel Area has meant that the Republic has been required to follow changes in British immigration policy. This was notably the case 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 but 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]

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.

The British in Ireland

Under Irish law all British citizens — including those 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.

The Irish 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]

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]

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 Ireland operate entirely separate visa systems with different, 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 generally do allow entry to holders of United Kingdom visas, but there are some cases when a special visa is required. A Republic of Ireland visa does not allow entry to the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

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. 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^[17] while targeted controls are conducted along the land border in what are referred to as "intelligence driven operations".^[18]

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".^[19] In contrast, Ireland, while never 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.^[20] (Although somewhat paradoxically, in 1997 Ireland imposed selective identity and immigration controls on anyone arriving from the United Kingdom^[21], 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 a long as the Common Travel Area is maintained.^[22]

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

Notes

1. See Ryan. The agreement was also, albeit indirectly, referred to in a Dàil debate on 4 June 1925 (''Dáil Debates'' volume 12 columns 317-318) [1].
2. by the ''Aliens Order 1923'' (UK).
3. the ''Aliens Order 1925'' (Ireland) [2] and the ''Aliens Order 1925'' (UK).
4. by the ''Aliens Order 1946'' (Ireland) [3].
5. Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, Geoffrey de Freitas, House of Commons Debates volume 478 columns 842-849 (28 July 1950).
6. House of Commons Debates volume 446 columns 1158-1166 (28 January 1948), volume 463 column 543 (24 March 1948), and volume 478 columns 842-849 (28 July 1959).
7. in the ''Aliens Order 1953'' (UK).
8. The existence of the 1952 agreement was conceded in a Irish parliamentary question on 3 June 1980 (''Dáil Debates'' volume 321 column 1379) [4].
9. In the UK by section 1(3) of the ''Immigration Act 1971'' (as amended) and by ''Immigration (Control of Entry through the Republic of Ireland) Order 1972'' (as amended). And in Ireland by the ''Aliens Orders 1946'' [5] (as amended; in particular by the ''Aliens (Amendment) Order 1975'' [6]).
10. the ''Aliens (Exemption) Order 1935'' (Ireland) [7]
11. It excluded a large number of people who were not born in the United Kingdom but whose right to reside in the UK was not restricted by the 1962 legislation. It also excluded from immigration control anyone born in the United Kingdom who were not British citizens. Until 1983 the latter group would only have included the children of diplomats and anyone who had formally renounced his or her citizenship. However after the restriction of ''Jus soli'' in Britain by the ''British Nationality Act 1981'' this group expanded to include the children of non-"settled" foreigners. For further information see: British nationality law.
12. by the ''Aliens (Exemption) Order 1999'' (Ireland) [8] which exempted all (and only) British citizens from immigration control.
13. The only exception being that between 1962 and 1999 those British citizens born outside the United Kingdom were not exempt. See History
14. See British nationality law and the Republic of Ireland and Evans.
15. Minister of State for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality, Liam Byrne, House of Lords Debates volume 689 Column WS54 (19 Feb 2007) [9]. The matter is further detailed in a report by the BBC [10].
16. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Home Office, Mike O'Brien, House of Commons Debates volume 332 column 434-435 (11 June 1999) [11]; D. Wallace, ''Seanad Debates'' volume 154 columns 106 (4 February 1998) [12].
17. D. Wallace, ''Seanad Debates'' volume 154 columns 106 (4 February 1998) [13].
18. John O'Donoghue, ''Dáil Debates'' volume 12 columns 593-594 (12 February 2002) [14].
19. Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, House of Commons Debates volume 287 columns 433-434 (12 December 1996) [15].
20. Minister for Justice, Nora Owen, ''Dáil Debates'' volume 450 column 1171 (14 March 1995) [16]; Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, ''Dáil Debates'' volume 501 column 1506 (9 March 1999)[17]; "Declaration by Ireland on Article 3 of the Protocol on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland" attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam.
21. by the ''Aliens (Amendment) (No. 3) Order 1997'' [18]; M. Wallace, ''Dáil Debates'' volume 510 columns 1400-1404 (16 November 1999) [19].
22. Article 2 of the "Protocol on the application of certain aspects of Article 7a of the Treaty establishing the European Community to the United Kingdom and to Ireland" attached to the Treaty of Amsterdam.

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

External links

★ Irish Government description of the Common Travel Area

★ Text of the Treaty of Amsterdam (see protocol B)