EU membership requires free movement of people and that means the UK no longer has control of its borders. At least that’s what eurosceptics like Nigel Farage would have people believe. They’ve done a brilliant job muddling the issues. This makes concerns such as terrorism and the refugee crisis feel even more threatening as a result of EU membership. But the two issues are different.
Farage said, following the Brussels bombings, that EU border rules led to “the free movement of terrorists, of criminal gangs and of Kalashnikovs“.
It’s not just UKIP’s boss who muddles the issues. Vote Leave, which is vying with a Farage-backed group to be the official Leave campaign, says on its website that free movement of people means the UK has “almost no control over who enters Britain from Europe” and makes it “much harder to fight terrorism”.
We control our borders
Despite what Brexiteers say, Britain doesn’t need to “reclaim control of its borders”. Anyone who wants to enter the UK still needs to present a passport or a national identity card issued by a EEA country for security checks by the UK Border Force.
This differs from our EU partners in the Schengen Area, where internal border checks between countries have largely been abolished. The UK has an opt out from the Schengen Area and will never be obliged to join.
One thing that has helped muddle the issue is the migration crisis focussed on Syria, which has led to much talk of Europe’s “leaky borders”. But, in fact, these are the Schengen Area’s leaky borders. The UK’s control of its own borders means that, despite more than one million migrants entering Schengen in 2015, few have reached the UK. The camps in Calais are testament to how difficult it is for irregular non-EU migrants to enter Britain.
Even media organisations who strive for impartiality helped muddle this issue at the height of the migration crisis by using the short-hand “Europe” when Schengen is more accurate (see these BBC, Reuters and FT headlines).
Eurosceptics blame open borders for recent terrorist atrocities. This partly holds true for the Paris attacks. But any jihadi attempting to enter the UK will be checked. Whether they will be apprehended is down to British border officials, not the EU. That would be true if we quit the EU too. Key to catching potential terrorists at the border is intelligence, and the UK will find it easier to cooperate on EU-wide counter-intelligence by remaining in the EU.
Free movement is different
Free movement of people is different from border-free travel inside Schengen or, indeed, Schengen’s leaky external borders. It is a fundamental principle of the EU, which does apply to Britain. It allows EU nationals to work without a permit, reside, look for a job and enjoy equal treatment to other citizens in another EU member state. These are not refugees fleeing civil war in Syria or economic migrants from outside Europe.
People can argue whether the UK should give Poles, Italians and Swedes rights to work and live in Britain. InFacts argues that on balance the economic argument is in Britain’s favour. It’s also a two-way street, with many Brits enjoying the same rights elsewhere in the EU.
Some eurosceptics, such as Iain Duncan Smith and Liam Fox, argue that today’s Schengen’s leaky borders could become tomorrow’s free movement of refugees or even terrorists. The most extreme suggestion is that a jihadi could lie low in a Schengen country for several years, get citizenship and then bomb the UK. InFacts has already argued that such a plot seems overly elaborate and long-winded.
This article was corrected on 7 April to include EEA national ID cards as a form of documentation for entering the UK.