Going to the UK with your ID card, it’s over – The HuffPost

via Associated Press

INTERNATIONAL – The identity card can no longer be used from this Friday, October 1 to return to UK, which now requires European or Swiss citizens to present a passport, one of the latest consequences dated Brexit.

In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior British says the change will “prevent organized criminal gangs and others from abusing the system”, as ID cards are an “insecure” document, he says.

According to his data, 48% of false documents detected in 2020 at the British border were European or Swiss identity cards. These documents are “easier to counterfeit than passports”, says the ministry, and some “do not include biometric data”.

Fight against false documents

“We must crack down on criminals who seek to enter our country illegally using false documents,” said Interior Minister Priti Patel, quoted in the statement. “By ending the use of these insecure identity cards, we are strengthening our border and responding to the will of the people to take back control of our immigration system,” she added.

The new measure, announced a year ago, is part of a sweeping new immigration plan to mark a promised tightening of Brexit, which Patel described in the statement as “tough on those who seek to abuse the system and fair to those who play by the rules ”.

The only exceptions to the compulsory passport: Irish nationals on the one hand, as well as European or Swiss citizens with a status (provisional or not) of resident in the United Kingdom on the other hand, who will be able to continue to use their card. identity until December 31, 2025.

See also on The HuffPost: Boris Johnson calls on France to “pull together” and “leave him alone”