united-kingdom immigration travel ireland
Can one’s ability to travel to Ireland be restricted due to breaches of U.K. immigration law? If so, how?
<p>Suppose that one has a less-than-pristine U.K. immigration record, and wishes to visit Ireland. Sure one may fairly naturally be banned from the U.K. for this, but can one’s ability or rights to visit Ireland in themselves be restricted? And if so, what are the terms and legal basis of   this?</p>

<h2>Yes</h2>
<p>You may be <a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/coming_to_live_in_ireland/permission_to_land_in_ireland.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">refused entry</a> into Ireland (among other reasons) if:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>&quot;You have been convicted of an offence which carries a penalty of a year’s imprisonment or more&quot; Some UK immigration offences meet this threshold. Note that you only need to be convicted of the offence, you do not need to have been sentenced to imprisonment of 1 year or more.</p>
</li>
<li><p>&quot;Your entry or presence in Ireland could pose a threat to national security or be contrary to public policy&quot; &quot;Public policy&quot; gives the immigration official broad latitude to decide that a person who has violated immigration law elsewhere may be excluded from Ireland.</p>
</li>
</ul>

<p>If there was intent to travel to the UK the the prior &quot;less-than-pristine&quot; record would obviously have an impact on <a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/moving_to_ireland/coming_to_live_in_ireland/permission_to_land_in_ireland.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">entry to Ireland</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You intend to travel to Great Britain or Northern Ireland and you do not have a right to enter there</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But it may have further reaching effects than that - Section 20 of the Irish <a href="https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2015/act/66/section/20/enacted/en/html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">International Protection Act 2015</a> has the following (my bold):</p>
<blockquote>
<ol start="20">
<li>(1) An immigration officer or a member of the Garda Síochána may arrest an applicant without warrant if that officer or member suspects, with reasonable cause, that the applicant—</li>
</ol>
<p>(a) poses a threat to public security or public order in the State,</p>
<p>(b) has committed a serious non-political crime outside the State,</p>
<p>(c) has not made reasonable efforts to establish his or her identity,</p>
<p>(d) intends to leave the State and without lawful authority enter another state,</p>
<p>(e) <strong>has acted</strong> or intends to act in a manner that would undermine—</p>
<p>(i) the system for granting persons international protection in the State, or</p>
<p>(ii) <strong>any arrangement relating to the Common Travel Area</strong>,</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>(f) without reasonable excuse—</p>
<p>(i) has destroyed his or her identity or travel document, or</p>
<p>(ii) is or has been in possession of a forged, altered or substituted identity document,</p>
<p>and an applicant so arrested may be taken to and detained in a prescribed place (in this section referred to as a “place of detention”).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This wording - is pretty vague, presumably to give substantial latitude in just what might constitute &quot;undermining&quot; the CTA, but the use of the past tense &quot;has acted&quot; clearly suggests that historical actions may be taken into account.</p>
<p>I don't know for example whether <a href="https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/157703/what-is-the-best-way-to-maximize-chances-of-reentry-upon-leaving-the-uk">previous</a> use of the CTA to illegally enter the UK would count but it would probably be wise to seek legal advice on that before running the risk.</p>

<p>Any country can ask you if you breached immigration laws anywhere. They just assume that if you breached for example UK law, you are likely to breach their law as well. You would definitely have problems entering the USA (unless you are a US citizen).</p>
<p>With Ireland, there is the additional problem that anyone who enters Ireland can easily enter the UK without being challenged anywhere (unlike say Belgium, just as an example, where you have to stop at some border control to enter the UK).</p>
<p>And there is the problem that with Ireland, they are much stronger connected to the UK than other EU countries.</p>
