Don’t forget your passport if you’re crossing the border…

Given the level of hand-wringing concern being publicly expressed about the possibility of border controls post-Brexit, disingenuous or otherwise, here’s a topical and relevant story courtesy of the BBC.

A County Armagh vegetable grower says businesses need more clarity about border controls, after eight of his workers were detained by Irish police on their way to work.

The men, all EU nationals, were stopped at Dundalk on Monday morning as they crossed the border in a work van.

They were on their way to pick leeks in the Republic of Ireland’s County Louth.

The checkpoint was set up as part of a day-long operation run by the Irish police’s National Immigration Bureau.

It saw all south-bound traffic being filtered off the motorway at Dundalk.

The workers, seven Romanians and one Lithuanian, had no identification documents.

They were driven to Dundalk Garda (Police) station where they were held for several hours.

A Garda spokesman said such operations had been ongoing for several years.

He said that under Irish immigration law, non-Irish nationals are required to carry documentation.

And as the BBC NI political editor, Mark Devenport, notes

Many of the Stormont Remain politicians are reluctant to accept that Brexit is a done deal, as they continue to hope it can be derailed by their court challenges or some other unforeseen event. But the clock is ticking, and the likely consequences on the border are very real.

The politicians are saying radically different things about Brexit but the public in Northern Ireland deserves both its Leave and Remain representatives to start thinking seriously about the practicalities.

Indeed.

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