When the Uk went to the polls to vote on whether to leave the EU or not there was a huge focus on getting back control of our borders among the other factors of leaving. The thinking being that lots of European immigrants are and were going to be a drain on our finite resources and stifle our wage growth. Some say they are / were a drain but others say that most migrants have a net gain for the country and its GDP.
There was and still is a lot of worry about the numbers of migrants travelling to the EU from other parts of the world and the further worry that when they arrived in the EU then they would travel onwards to the UK with little impediment.
Of course the UK has a geographical advantage as an island nation when it comes to people getting to our shores with a lot of water getting in the way. This means that non EU migrants have much greater difficulty getting here which has meant that the large migrant camps have popped up along the French coast nearest to the UK. If you have ever travelled via Calais or one of the other French ports along the English channel the migrant issue is very obvious.
What is also very obvious is the huge amount of resources that the French authorities (I think British investment has helped too) have put in to tightening security around the ports with the kilometres of high barbed wire topped double fencing and large police presence to protect the ports. They have also been dismantling the illegal camps and moving the migrants on but not really solving the problem just moving it around. The British border has in effect also moved to the French side of the channel with British customs and immigration checking people on that side.
This brings me on to the thought that I had - when the UK leaves the EU does it mean that the French have no reason or obligation to allow British customs on their side of the British Channel? Does it also mean that there will no motivation to protect the ports? After all, if the migrants are then in fact leaving the EU themselves to go to a non EU country (the UK) isn't that good for France and the EU? They will be making it someone else's problem and can wipe their hands of it.
Will they just open the border for anyone leaving as why would they care if they are doing just that and leaving.
I really don't know but the thought I had was -
Are we know going to see detention centres set up around Dover to house the illegal immigrants arriving in the town from France? Will the UK have to take on the role of repatriating those who are simply economic migrants back to their own countries and feeding and housing them until the authorities can do so.
will France/the EU have the right to just open the borders and let these people leave -I don't know but if it is the case then it's going to be a side effect of Brexit that I have not heard anybody mention.