[ChristmasNeeve]

Originally Posted by Toy Santa

This was sort of my point; that they wouldn't be illegally in the EU, I was talking mainly about the residents of other EU members states who (supposedly) want access to the UK and that Brexit was (supposedly) going to stop. They will have free movement within the EU still, therefore, they will be free to travel to and within Ireland... and if there is a soft border (by which I mean one you wouldn't even need to be smuggled over - one that you could just simply walk across, as is the case now) then they would have free access to NI too.



Making getting to the mainland tricky, sure, but if they simply stayed in NI then they would still be in the UK . My guess here is that the majority of Brexit voters (i.e. the English) don't actually give a stuff if there are illegal EU migrants in NI - so long as they don't make it across the sea to the "real" UK .

True but what can they do when they get there? they can't try to claim social welfare or they would be found to be illegal and they can't work legally either and they can't leave NI to get to Britain so is it really worth causing so much problems by insisting on a hard border?