Border security

How Will Brexit Affect British Border Control?

One major issue significantly affecting the June 23 vote was the EU response—largely viewed as inadequate—to the flood of refugees entering Europe in recent years from Syria, elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. The U.K. has been receiving an average of 300,000 immigrants every year since 2012, and in 2015 over half of the year’s 333,000 immigrants were from non-EU countries.

British officials in favor of Brexit believe that leaving the EU will allow the U.K. to regain control of its immigration flows. However, recreating a pre-EU international border poses some challenging logistical questions. Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom and a separate political entity than the Republic of Ireland, would essentially form the U.K.’s only land border since Ireland proper is an EU member. Currently, there are no border controls on the Emerald Isle and establishing them could prove to be challenging.