They denounce the increase in delays and rejections in the granting of residence permits in the United Kingdom, which affects thousands of EU citizens
The civil society organization The3Million denounces “systematic deficiencies” in the official settlement system in the UK for the community diaspora living in the country before Brexit, putting their rights and access to grants recognized in the Union Withdrawal Agreement at risk in Europe.
Since Brexit, more than 5.4 million Europeans have been granted British immigration status. The figure surpasses initial estimates of three million residents entitled to so-called ‘settlement status’ (hence the name of the grassroots movement) and has not yet reached a peak. This June 30 marks a year since the official deadline for applying for residence permits for those who were in the country before New Year’s Eve 2020, but the Interior Ministry continues to process forms.
“It’s impossible to say how many genuine requests have been made,” Kuba Jablonowski, a researcher at the University of Exeter, warned at a meeting of the Foreign Journalists Association (FPA). As of May 31, 6.6 million applications had been submitted (more than half a million after the supposed deadline), but it’s unknown how many people failed and became irregular, of their own free will or ignorance of the rule. “It’s a flawed system that doesn’t protect the vulnerable,” criticized Nicolas Hatton, co-founder of The3Million, after noting that there was no indication that “our fears were unfounded”.
The slope of a government response has fallen from 600,000 a year ago to 245,700 today. The delay is six to 12 months in about half of the cases. And many have not even received the “application certificate” necessary to rent a flat, open a bank account, or access a job. The Surveillance Authority for Citizens’ Rights (IMA) has launched an investigation due to the high volume of complaints about this. This independent entity has also launched legal proceedings against the government over the precarious situation of the 2.5 million members of the community who were only granted temporary residence permits.
Dahaba Ali Hussen in indictment exposed the chain of “bureaucratic mistakes” immigration made in adjudicating its case. She comes from a Somali family and has Dutch nationality. She has lived in the UK since childhood, studied at Cambridge, worked for the BBC and other British media, but was denied resident status three times, she told the press conference. His Romanian colleague, Andreea Dumitrache, was not allowed to board a flight from Mallorca to London, although his documentation was in order.
According to The3Million, the citizens of Central Europe are the ones who have faced the most bureaucratic obstacles since Brexit. Those applying for a residence permit for non-European relatives also face delays and rejections, which led to the intervention of the IMA. On the other hand, unions accuse Boris Johnson’s board of ignoring EU Court of Justice rulings re-validating the community’s right to state grants with a temporary residence permit. “The government is systematically violating the Brexit agreement on citizenship,” denounced Luke Piper, lawyer and director of strategy at The3Million.
Source: La Verdad
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