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Brexit: 1m EU citizens in Britain 'could be at risk

of deportation'
Campaigners say it would take the Home Ofce 47 years to process applications from
EU citizens for permanent residency
Lisa O'Carroll
Thursday 1 December 2016 18.33GMT

The government has been warned that up to 1 million EU citizens living in

the UK could be at risk of deportation if it does not come up with a simple
way of recognising their status in the country.

The 3 Million, a grassroots group lobbying for the rights of non-British

citizens who have made the UK their home, has told the home secretary it
would take the Home Oce 47 years to process applications from EU
citizens for permanent residency (PR). We are people with families,
children, friends and work colleagues, and we are rightly worried about a
very uncertain future, said Nicolas Hatton, chair of the 3 Million, in his
letter to Amber Rudd.
EU citizens have been feeling very anxious about their future since the
referendum, and this set of data will not reassure them. We call on you to
remove the threat of deportation without notice and give us, today,
guarantees that all EU citizens living legally in the UK will be able to
exercise their right to remain before the UK leaves the EU.
The estimated time it would take the Home Oce to deal with the 3 million
EU citizens in the country is based on the latest immigration data, which
shows a surge in applications for PR since the EU referendum, which has
caused a backlog of 100,000 applications.

Former Labour MP Roger Casale and 3 Million

founder Nicholas Hatton. Photograph: Lisa O'Carroll

PR was designed for non-EU citizens who wished to settle in the UK and
involves an 85-page application form. Applicants not only have to provide
ve years of council tax bills, bank statements or utility bills to demonstrate
residency, but also have to document each time they have been in and out
of the country since they arrived in the UK.
One German woman, an executive with a large European rm, who lives in
Watford, told the Guardian. I travel about 20 times a year and I have been
here for 18 years. It is ridiculous, said Monika Lutke-Daldrup.

Paola Rizatto said: I am an educated person, but I found the 85-page form
so overwhelming that I decided to hire an immigration lawyer. I have
already spent around 1,000.
Several mothers who have British children say they are not eligible for PR
because their household bills are not in their names. Just to be married to a
British person or to have British children is not enough, said one. Another,
who asked not to be named, said she had been told to get her childs school
to sign a statement that she had been picking up her child each day for the
past ve years.
The 3 Million said the Home Oce process for PR is totally inconsistent
and depends on what Home Oce adviser you get.
Data published on Thursday shows that 30% of applications are rejected,
with many EU citizens unable to pass the paperwork test despite their legal
right of residence as EU citizens.
If the government requires all non-Britons to join the non-EU immigrants in
the permanent residency queue, up to 1 million could face deportation the
day the UK leaves the EU.
The Home Oce said there had been no change to the rights and status of
EU nationals in the UK as a result of the referendum. Its guidance was that
EU citizens did not need to apply for permanent residence. As such there is
no requirement to register for documentation to conrm their status, a
spokesperson said.
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Topics
EU referendum and Brexit Europe European Union Foreign policy

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