Migrant 'backdoor' into Britain threatens to derail Labour crackdown as asylum seekers 'take advantage' of 'gaping hole' in 'terrifying' numbers

The border has become a “backdoor” for migrants into Britain, with both unionist politicians and migration experts raising the alarm that a crisis is brewing under the Government’s nose.

Jim Allister, MP for North Antrim, told GB News the issue would inevitably “drive coach and horses” through the Home Secretary’s asylum reform scheme.

The Traditional Unionist Voice leader knows full well the pressure that increased migrant flows have inflicted on his own constituency, where an “overconcentration” of Roma migrants has crossed the porous EU border with the Republic of Ireland.

In June, anti-migrant riots tore through Ballymena and spread throughout Ireland following charges, which have now been dropped, of rape being brought against two Romanian-speaking teenagers.

Mr Allister argued a combination of virtually non-existent border controls with the South and ironclad legal protections for asylum seekers enforced by the post-Brexit Windsor Framework was turning Northern Ireland into a “magnet” for migrants.

Once in the North, migrants then have easy access to the rest of the United Kingdom.

Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control, said it was “staggering” how little consideration was being afforded to this blind spot.

“The whole political class seems to have turned a blind eye to this gaping hole in our borders,” he told The People’s Channel.

The so-called “Irish route” into Britain begins when migrants arrive in the Republic of Ireland either legally or on false papers, where they can then freely travel unchecked into Northern Ireland by land and then throughout the rest of the UK.

This openness is a feature of the Common Travel Area, a long-standing arrangement which allows free movement of people between the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man without routine immigration controls.

Mr Allister stressed: “Illegal immigrants from non-EU countries, who find their way into the Republic, pass into Northern Ireland (and the UK) by the same means”.

“Our authorities do not, on a regular basis, conduct any sort of stop on the border coming to the North,” he said.

GB News understands the Government does not operate routine immigration controls over the Irish border, in line with Common Travel Area arrangements, but works closely with Irish authorities to prevent abuse and monitor migration trends.

Baroness Hoey, a former Labour, now independent, peer and County Antrim resident, warned the House of Lords earlier this year: “We cannot continue like this. It is unsustainable."

Once in the North, migrants enjoy the legal protections enforced by the post-Brexit Windsor Framework.

Article 2(1) of the legal accord, which came into force in October 2023, certifies the Government’s commitment that certain equalities and rights, guaranteed by the Good Friday Agreement, would be preserved within Northern Ireland.

Those guarantees are drawn chiefly from the European Convention on Human Rights, the most relevant of which is Article 8 of the charter.

This section protects the right to respect for private and family life, home, and correspondence and has become a key source of leniency in the UK’s asylum system.

More than half of family and private life applications are approved on the basis that refusals would be in breach of Article 8, even without meeting minimum income and English language requirements.

It is also used to block the deportation of illegal migrants, with 86 per cent of those in detention raising rights-based concerns being released between January and September 2022, according to Government figures.

A keystone of Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms is the plan to reinterpret Article 8 to speed up deportations and cut asylum claims.

However, Jim Allister believed the Windsor Framework's preservation of ECHR rights “in stone” would create a loophole in Northern Ireland.

“Any attempt by the Home Secretary, in respect of Northern Ireland, to diminish the Article 8 rights of the ECHR is likely to be subject to legal challenge and, on past performance, is likely to be successful,” he explained to this broadcaster.

“We’ve already had three pieces of legislation struck down because of the Windsor Framework. We had the Immigration Act 2023, the Rwanda Act and the Legacy Act.

“All struck down, or at least an aspect of them, on the basis they offended particular protections within the ECHR,” the North Antrim MP detailed.

In May 2024, a High Court judge ruled the Rwanda deportation policy resulted in a “diminution of rights” in Northern Ireland, principally for asylum seekers, and therefore, certain provisions “should be disapplied”.

In practice, this meant the Rwanda plan was left dead in the water in Northern Ireland, and the then Conservative Government was unable to enforce its own immigration policy there.

“The one place you couldn’t be sent to Rwanda from was Northern Ireland because those provisions were struck down,” Mr Allister recalled.

The Traditional Unionist feared this would be mirrored in Labour’s promised reforms and that the smallest nation of the UK would become a “magnet for asylum seekers on the basis they would have rights there that they wouldn’t have elsewhere”.

Mr Bates concurred, observing the legal loophole created “pull factors” which made it “inevitable that many asylum seekers in the Irish Republic use the open border to take advantage of this country’s naive generosity”.

GB News understands the Home Office does not consider immigration and asylum rights within the scope of Article 2(1) and is currently making that case before the courts.

“The only way this can be addressed is by Parliament having the courage to supersede Article 2 of The Windsor Framework and to say, not withstanding anything in Article 2, that these changes will apply to the entire United Kingdom... because to work it really needs to be countrywide,” Mr Allister explained.

Otherwise, he warned Northern Ireland could quickly become a “dumping ground” for migrants, causing intense social pressures, or move throughout the UK.

The number of migrants who have already entered the country through this backdoor is “terrifyingly” unknown, Mr Bates revealed.

He told GB News it was currently impossible to measure the number of crossings due to lax enforcement at the border.

Mr Allister agreed, as the MP for North Antrim despaired: “There’s no way to know”.

However, what can be observed are specific cases of how migrants and people smugglers have abused the liberties afforded by the CTA and Windsor Framework.

In September, 30 people-smugglers were arrested after they attempted to sneak illegal migrants into the UK through the Northern Irish back door.

The gangs, for a £4,000 fee, which was advertised on Facebook, provided Albanian migrants with fake Italian ID cards that were used to fly them into Ireland.

Migrants could then claim asylum with their Albanian passports or break into Britain on ferries over the Irish Sea to work illegally.

In April, twenty Albanians were also found stowed away in a yacht en route to Ireland, which was intercepted in Cornwall.

Hundreds of other migrants have been able to easily re-enter the UK through the Irish backdoor, even after they were handed a £3,000 payment of taxpayer cash to leave the country as part of the Home Office’s Assisted Voluntary Return Scheme.

Brazilian nationals filming in London's Soho district confirmed this pathway remains popular amongst those previously removed.

One migrant documented his journey on social media, describing spending three hours with Dublin immigration officials who accused him of lying.

“They called me a liar and said I wouldn't be allowed in, but I told them I wasn't going back to London, only visiting Ireland.

“They gave me a five-day visa and let me in. God knows why, haha. But my real goal was to get to London,” he told the Daily Mail.

The Brazilian also posted photographs showing his Irish visa and subsequent travel from Limerick to Shannon Airport, where he flew to London, encountering “no immigration (enforcement) at all”.

The Home Office told GB News: “Everyone entering the UK must comply with our immigration rules.

“Any attempt to circumvent border controls may result in detention and removal.

“Last week, the Home Secretary announced the most significant reforms in modern times to eliminate the incentives attracting illegal migrants to the UK and to ensure the removal of those with no right to remain.”

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