The row over the Home Office’s treatment of Windrush-era residents has fuelled fears in Brussels and the UK over the fate of EU citizens after the country leaves the bloc.
The government’s policy on migration and its administrative frailties, have long been a cause for concern among EU officials. The attack by Home Secretary Amber Rudd on her own department over the treatment of people who arrived in Britain as children from the Caribbean has only heightened those concerns.
People who have lived in the UK for decades, but have been unable to produce evidential documentation to meet tightened immigration policies, have lost their jobs, become homeless or been refused urgent healthcare. Some have been sent to immigration removal centres and threatened with deportation.
Members of the European Parliament remain concerned about the ability of the Home Office to manage the application system for settled status. There is little trust that the Home Office can administrate the process without making errors and forcing unjustified deportations.
The European parliament’s Brexit coordinator and former prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, has been vociferous in his support of EU citizens living in the UK. He has demanded that the British government reassure the EU parliament that there will be adequate safeguards in place to ensure a similar problems do not arise with regard to EU citizens in the UK.
The3million campaign group, which represents EU citizens in the UK, met immigration minister Caroline Nokes to discuss how the Home Office planned on handling the online application process for settled status post-Brexit. Ms Nokes reportedly said she could “not guarantee” that EU citizens would not end up being treated like the Windrush generation in years to come.
As with the Windrush scandal, there are likely to be vulnerable EU citizens who may be disadvantaged by the registration process, including the elderly, the computer illiterate and people in care. It is hoped that in an increasingly electronic world EU citizens will be able to prove and rely on their digital footprint. A record of should exist in the Department of Work and Pensions records which could then be used as evidence of work and life in the UK.
EU citizens whose applications to register for settled status after Brexit are rejected can appeal against the ruling, but the protection of the European court of justice expires in 2028, leaving cases after that time at the mercy of Home Office officials.
The Home Office said in a statement that it was already working with EU citizens groups to get the process right.
