Written questions

Undocumented Migrants: Northern Ireland

2026-06-14 · Home Office · 9507 · Official question

Sir John Hayes

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were detained for attempting to enter Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland illegally in each of the past five years.

Answer

As part of the Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangements, the UK does not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from Ireland to the UK, with no immigration checks being undertaken on the Ireland-Northern Ireland land border.The UK does however carr...