1,000 migrants removed from Northern Ireland in past year, says Hilary Benn
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has said that 1,000 people have been removed from the region over the past year and that immigration enforcement will increase.
Asked if anything can be done to stop people crossing the border from the Republic of Ireland, he told GB News: “Well, it is a function of what’s called the Common Travel Area. For over a century, people from the United Kingdom and Ireland have been able to live and work and travel freely across the British Isles, and every single day here in Northern Ireland, people cross that border to go to work, to shop, to visit friends, to worship, and vice versa.
“It’s brought huge benefit to the people of the British Isles, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and Ireland. So, what that means is you need to target your enforcement operation, and we already work very closely with the Irish authorities to prevent abuse of the Common Travel Area.
“You’re going to see an increase in that activity, enforcement, and raids. In the last year alone, 1,000 people have been removed from Northern Ireland because they do not have the right to be here, and it is that intelligence-led operation, including on major travel routes, airports, bus routes, train routes, and ports, that is the most effective thing that we can do, because the Common Travel Area underpins, of course, the Good Friday Agreement.”
He added: “Every asylum application has to be considered individually on its merits, and in respect of the terrible scenes we witnessed on Monday night, this is an individual who has chosen to do this. They have been charged, it is for the court process to deal with them, but we should judge people by the contribution that they make to our society.
“Some of the things that we have seen people saying, ‘Well, they’re folk who come from particular countries, and they shouldn’t be allowed in’. If you take Sudan, there will no doubt be Sudanese doctors working today, operating on patients around the United Kingdom, helping to save lives.
“The fact is, we should judge people not by the colour of their skin, but by, as Martin Luther King famously said, the content of their character, the contribution they make. The ethnic minority community here in Northern Ireland, working with the community that was born and brought up here, their friends, their neighbours, their work colleagues, and they’re making an important contribution, as is everybody else.
“What is so makes me so sad is that the world is looking at Northern Ireland at the moment and what they’re witnessing on the streets, it does not represent the wonderful place that this is, with innovation and drive and energy and investment. Northern Ireland economy is doing pretty well, actually. It’s got the lowest unemployment in the whole of the United Kingdom.
“We want more people to see the advantages of coming to invest in Northern Ireland, because that is how we’re going to improve lives for everybody.”
