Brexit could leave 1 million EU citizens 'at risk of deportation' – organisation

The British government has been warned that up to 1 million EU citizens living in the UK could be at risk of deportation on the day Britain leaves the EU, British media reported

30% of the current applications for Permanent Residency are rejected, The 3 Million has said
30% of the current applications for Permanent Residency are rejected, The 3 Million has said

The British 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 in the UK, has told the home secretary it would take the Home Office 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,” Nicolas Hatton, chair of the 3 Million, said 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.”

Theresa May has consistently said that rights for EU citizens were a legitimate part of Brexit negotiations, but on Thursday night the government seemed to go one step further by indicating their rights could be removed if not reciprocated.

“The home secretary has been clear that she wants to protect the status of EU nationals already living here, and the only circumstances in which that wouldn’t be possible is if British citizens’ rights in European member states were not protected in return,” a Home Office spokesperson said.

The estimated time it would take the Home Office to deal with the 3 million EU citizens in the country is reportedly 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.

PR was designed for non-EU citizens who wished to settle in the UK and involves an 85-page application form. According to the Guardian, applicants not only have to provide five 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.

The 3 Million said the Home Office process for PR “is totally inconsistent and depends on what Home Office 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, the Guardian reported.

The 3 Million posted the letter they wrote to home secretary Amber Rudd on their Facebook page
The 3 Million posted the letter they wrote to home secretary Amber Rudd on their Facebook page

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, it added. 

The Home Office 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 confirm their status,” a spokesperson said.