A border crossing between Co Fermanagh in Northern Ireland and Co Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland (Naill Carson/PA Wire)

People in Northern Ireland who identify as Irish could become “second-class citizens” post-Brexit, human rights groups have claimed.

The chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) said the Withdrawal Agreement reached between the UK and the EU left significant gaps in the protection of human rights in areas like citizens’ rights and puts people on both sides of the border at risk.

Oireachtas Committee told of âSignificant Gapsâ in Human Rights and Equality Protections under Withdrawal Agreementhttps://t.co/OihESRAiFQ — Irish Human Rights & Equality Commission (@_IHREC) January 23, 2019

Emily Logan said: “I don’t think the public understand that the implications… people might find themselves in a situation of being forced to assume an identify they wouldn’t choose.”

Ms Logan said the offer of continued EU citizenship should be extended to all the “people of Northern Ireland” as defined by the Good Friday Agreement, given recognition of the birthright of people in Northern Ireland to identify as Irish or British, or both.

“The last situation we wish to see is one where the people of Northern Ireland feel forced to choose their identity based on what they think their post-Brexit entitlements might be,” she said.

Ms Logan appeared before the Justice and Equality Committee on Wednesday alongside representatives from the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and Queen’s University to discuss the potential implications of Brexit on human rights and equality.

Thank You to the Oireachtas committee on Justice and Equality for the invitation to discuss the human rights and equality implications of #Brexit https://t.co/yt7RN1vE81 — Emily Logan (@emily_mlogan) January 23, 2019

Brian Gormally, director of the NIHRC Committee on the Administration of Justice said that if Brexit goes ahead, it would make the status of Irish citizens born in Northern Ireland “insecure” and they would become “EU citizens living in a non-member state”.

He said the first possibility is that the Home Office would regard Irish citizens as “really” British, the second possibility is that the Common Travel Area would sort the issue out, and thirdly that EU citizens living in the UK could apply for “settled status”.

“None of these options is appealing as they all involve the implication that those who choose Irish identity are in some way second-class citizens,” Mr Gormally said.

“Their rights as full participants in NI life would depend on either a denial of their Irish nationality, as yet unknown bilateral agreements between the UK and Ireland about the Common Travel Area, or paying to ask the Home Office to graciously allow them leave to live in the land of their birth.

“The reality is that Irish citizens, born and living in Northern Ireland, have no legal connection to the jurisdiction in which they were born.”

Mr Gormally told the committee the Belfast Agreement had not been effectively implemented in UK law.

He said legislation was needed in the UK and Ireland to recognise the “particular status of Irish citizens born in Northern Ireland” and their “unequivocal” right to participate fully in that region and in Irish society.

Committee member Clare Daly, an Independents 4 Change TD, described the comments as “shocking and sobering”, adding that they had highlighted “scarily” a legal deficit regarding citizenship rights which needs to be addressed.

Ms Logan and her Northern Ireland counterpart Les Allamby, chief commissioner of the NIHRC, warned the committee that the withdrawal of the UK from the EU threatened to undermine the human rights of the Good Friday Agreement.

Ms Logan said that since 1998, there had been substantial progress towards a lasting resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland, but it assumed that the UK and Ireland would continue to be members of the EU.

“Although the Joint Report of December 2017 committed to protecting the Agreement ‘in all its parts’, Brexit negotiations currently depart from that common framework creating risks for both rights and remedies,” she said.

Mr Gormally said Brexit had already “damaged” and “destabilised” the peace settlement and relations across the island.

“Questions of identity and citizenship have been opened up in a way not seen since well before the Agreement – those genies cannot be put back in the bottle,” he said.

“We therefore need a set of measures, across the island and, where possible, on the basis of formal treaties between the two sovereign states involved.”

PA