Gardaí: Border checks are not Brexit-related

Belfast-Dublin bus stopped and passengers asked for passports

GARDAÍ removed several people from an Aircoach bus going to Dublin Airport from Belfast after conducting a passport inspection at the border yesterday.

The bus was travelling along the M1 when it was pulled over at about 9.30am yesterday.

Two uniformed members of An Garda Síochána boarded the bus and called for passengers to produce passport or ID.

A number of passengers on board the bus were asked to produce identification.

However, gardaí last night said that immigration checks have always taken place on trains and buses crossing the border from the North.

Meanwhile, a senior security source said that while such searches are more ‘visible’, they are related to immigration concerns, and not to Britain’s departure from the EU, which was scheduled to take place at the end of March before the process was extended.

Yesterday, one New Zealand national, who is a long-term resident in Ireland, described the scene on the Dublin-bound bus from Belfast. She said several people were taken off the bus, including an Asian man.

She told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘When the garda came on, a passenger said he’d never seen this before and I heard a garda saying it’s been happening since 1994.

‘When the man in front of me was removed, the garda told him he should not be travelling to the south without a passport.’

She added: ‘I didn’t know what was happening. It gave me a real fright. I never have my passport on me but thankfully I had other ID that they checked.

‘The drivers changed when we reached Dublin Airport and when I was getting off the coach in the city centre, I asked the new driver why we had been asked for our passports. He didn’t know but said, “Maybe it’s something to do with Brexit”.’

Although gardaí and Customs officials have carried out such searches in the past, they are becoming more ‘frequent’, according to security sources. ‘It’s routine for members of the immigration unit to conduct searches on trains and buses coming into the Republic. The public are probably paying more attention now as they are more visible. It’s not people who are residents in Northern Ireland or even in the UK, but it’s non-EU residents who are being checked,’ a senior security source told the Mail.

‘For example, a person who flies into Belfast and then gets on a train heading towards Dublin. If they didn’t have the proper visa then they would be likely stopped from entering. It’s usually from a third country outside the EU.

‘It’s the same immigration just as we have at Rosslare Port or Dublin Airport. It’s random buses and trains which are boarded and Fired up: David Lammy on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday checked. It’s part of gardaí role in general. People from the UK and Northern Ireland are not being checked,’ said the security source.

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said that immigration checks have always taken place on trains and buses crossing the border.

Meanwhile, Northern Irish train drivers who work on cross-border services may need a new licence to operate in the Republic, in the event of a hard Brexit, Irish Rail chief executive Jim Meade warned earlier this year. ‘It’s not a huge issue. It’s doable but it will involve effort and time,’ Mr Meade said.

‘I didn’t know what was happening’