UK claims Ireland will be post-Brexit gateway

BRITAIN’S immigration minister claims Ireland could be used as an easy route into the UK for other EU citizens after Brexit.

Brexiteers are worried that Greeks and Italians don’t have biometric passports and Minister Caroline Nokes said this will be raised with the EU.

She said: ‘There are some nationalities who use identity cards which are far less secure than biometric passports and I have concerns that, moving forward as we move into a new i mmigration system post-Brexit, we will get to a position where we will no longer accept those.

‘That is some five years after exit, but obviously those are conversations that will be ongoing with members of the EU, particularly with Ireland.

‘I am very conscious that that could potentially be seen as an easier route in because Ireland will be obliged to accept the less secure travel documents that some of the EU-27 still enable their citizens to use.’

Her comments came as she addressed t he Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs at Westminster.

Conservative committee member Robert Goodwill said: ‘There are loopholes and security lapses with Greek and Italian identity passports which are not biometric, obtained from the town hall.’

All Irish passports have been biometric since 2006. Ireland’s major point of entry is Dublin airport where immigration services processed nearly 14million passengers in 2016.

Ireland has been implementing an EU directive on passenger name records which is intended to help prevent terrorism.

It has a system to enhance identity document checks as part of the citizenship process which has resulted in the earlier detection of fraudulent claims, an annual review from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service said.