THE DUP says the British government has yet to resolve a “gaping hole” in its UK “electronic border” defences against crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, further details of which have emerged.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Grayling voiced fears that plans to keep records of all 250 million journeys made by individuals “in and out of the United Kingdom” each year marked another step toward Britain becoming “a Big Brother society”.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson suggested the real point was that Britain’s planned strengthening of her defences would not work unless they encompassed “the land border” between Northern Ireland and the Republic and a new agreement between the British and Irish governments to that effect.
Against Mr Grayling’s warnings about possible abuse of personal data, immigration and borders minister Phil Woolas defended the government’s reported development of a secret database to track and store the international travel records of all 60 million Britons.
“The UK has one of the toughest borders in the world and we are determined to ensure it stays that way,” he said. “Our hi-tech electronic borders system will allow us to count all passengers in and out and targets those who aren’t willing to play by our rules.”
According to the Sunday Timesthe database will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details of all passenger journeys in and out of the UK each year.
It was also reported that once the scheme is fully operational, carriers will provide data on every person buying a ticket to travel “to or from the UK” by air, sea or rail to Britain’s borders agency.
Mr Donaldson told The Irish Timesthe DUP has received assurances from the Home Office that British citizens in Northern Ireland travelling to other parts of the UK will not be treated on the same basis as foreign nationals.
With both the British and Irish governments seemingly agreed that the drive toward “e-borders” will have no implications for British and Irish citizens travelling either way between Northern Ireland and the Republic, Mr Donaldson reflected underlying unionist unease that complete implications of the plan had not fully “crystallised”.
The junior Stormont Minister said: “There is a major loophole in what is being proposed . . . Many people in Northern Ireland obviously travel to Dublin to catch international flights. Likewise we know many Irish citizens travel from places like Donegal to Aldergrove to fly to the US. Will all those people be encompassed in this scheme?”
If they were, Mr Donaldson suggested this meant “the boundary for the e-border” would be “the British Isles as a whole”, necessitating a British-Irish agreement to put common arrangements in place. “Otherwise there is a gaping hole in the whole plan,” he said.