Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal crossings were made over the Northern Ireland border in the last 5 years.

It is not possible to state how many illegal crossings were made over the Northern Ireland border in the last 5 years as not all people arriving via illegal entry routes will be detected.

Operation Gull is an ongoing Home Office Immigration Enforcement intelligence led initiative that tackles Common Travel Area (CTA) immigration abuse in air and sea ports in Northern Ireland. Through Operation Gull Immigration Enforcement will be aware of those individuals who they encounter abusing the CTA.

To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication.

Our published data is available at the following link and includes data on illegal entry to the UK : Immigration system statistics, year ending December 2025 - GOV.UK