Why doesn’t the new EU immigration system count people? Post-Brexit immigration issues
The European rights organisations are voicing their concerns over a new EU immigration system- saying that it generates many issues which make people “ feel unsettled and anxious” and exposing them to a hostile environment. Suggesting that the system doesn’t count people. Just 23 days before the end of the application deadline, they ask everyone to apply.
Under the new Brexit arrangements, all European citizens who want to continue living in the UK must apply for an immigration status (Settlement Scheme).
The system gives EU citizens the right to remain, work, or access public services such as healthcare. Those who fail to apply would become illegal immigrants.
So what and where is the problem?
Issues with Settlement Scheme
Settled status gives the EU citizens the right to remain, work or access public services in the UK after Brexit. Therefore, all EU citizens who lived in the UK before December 2020 and want to continue living in the country must apply for immigration status by 30 June 2021.
However, many people have faced several issues when applying for their right to remain. They talked about their experiences on Twitter.
Monsieur von Kraut, who has been living in London since November 1999, working in consumer electronics, waited a few weeks for a response from Home Office about his settled status.
“I haven’t heard a word from the Home Office about my settled status filed two months ago [...] It might have been their way of telling me to take the hint”
When Monsieur wanted to get information about his application status, the EU citizen heard that local authorities could not update its progress. Frustrated and confused, Monsieur decided to leave the UK at the end of March. After 8 weeks, he finally received his settled status and left the UK.
Some EU citizens have had to wait for weeks or months to obtain their immigration status, reports the InLimbo Project. The organisation explains that those who have been waiting were “particularly non-EU citizens married to EU ones.”
Elena Remigi, from InLimbo, added that many people were granted the wrong status. Still, they were afraid to challenge the authorities responsible for issuing settled status or did not know what to do with it. Some did not update their personal information.
Cosi Doerfel Hill, who helps people with their applications for the settlement scheme, lists other problems that EU citizens have faced:
- Illiteracy
- Language barriers
- Digital barriers
- Lack of technology
- Lack of skills
- Lack of documents
- Lack of evidence of residence
On top of that, the pandemic has made it more difficult for people to apply or access the benefits, Remigi added.
“All this is making people feel very unsettled and anxious ”
In Limbo, which “collects voices and makes the public aware of the human impact of Brexit”, not only physical changes but also psychological consequences, say that:
“The hostile environment created by Theresa May is still here, and many will fall prey to it.”
“ Counts applications, not people ”
The recent immigration status data showed that the Home Office received almost 5.42 million applications for settled status by the end of February this year. The government have already decided on the results of 5.12 million applications, granting:
- Settled status (for Europeans who have lived more than 5 years in the UK)
- Pre-settled status (for those who have lived less than 5 years in the country)
- Or refused applications
Settled Status was granted to over 2.68 million people.
However, Maike Bohn, from the organisation looking after EU citizens in the UK, says that the new immigration system is not reliable, as it “counts applications, not people.”
“[The system] counts applications but not people, so that the same person could apply for pre-settled status and then for settled status, and they would be counted double.”
Co-founder of the3milion added that data on the Home Office receiving over 5 million immigration applications “are not very transparent.”
“One of our issues with the Home Office is that they’re not very transparent, and they don’t give us the right data and feedback on how the scheme is performing.”
European rights organisations point out that it is crucial to understand how the system works and, more importantly, how many people have been refused to support them.
Elena Remigi says that they knew about over 29,000 refused applications that “were ineligible to apply”. She adds that the government hasn’t given any breakdowns on who was denied or why. Some of them did not have any convictions, points out Cosi Doerfel Hill.
“I suspect that all the complex cases are at the bottom of the pile. If we knew those who were refused, it would be much easier to help them. Still, they are not often on social media and thus harder to support,” Elena Remigi.
Why are people having problems?
Maike Bohn suggests that the system causes many issues because it is all-new.
“The UK Government never made people register when they came to the UK, as most other European countries do. They don’t know how many people are in the UK and where they are.”
According to the Office for National Statistics, the latest estimation shows that 3.4 million EU nationals lived in the UK at the end of June 2020. However, the co-founder of the 3 million adds that the data are not “reliable”.
“They (the Home Office) have statistics that are not reliable. They will never know when the last person who’s eligible for these rights might have applied; they don’t, “ says Maike Bohn.
The Migration Observatory questioned the estimates’ accuracy, as the number of applications was greater than the number of Europeans living in the UK in 2020. Their latest report explains discrepancies :
- The number of EU applicants for the Settlement Scheme in June 2020 was 3.5million, which exceeded the number of EU citizens living in the country, estimated at 3.4 million by the ONS in 2019.
- The EU Settlement Scheme includes calculating people who have left the country but can still apply for legal residence to return afterwards.
- The same system counts applicants who reapplied from pre-settled to settled status twice.
The chart below shows the number of applicants for EU settled status by country.
What does the government say?
On the 7th of June UK Parliament debated on plans for EU citizens who applied for legal residency, with Chris Philip discussing the scheme on behalf of the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department. He said that that the scheme “is going extremely well.”
“ So far, 4.9 million people have been granted status. Only 1% of applications have been refused. It is a true United Kingdom success story. Those who have applied prior to 30 June will keep their status until such time as their applications are decided”.
But when asked about the future of those who might miss the deadline, he stressed the importance of applying for the scheme on time.
“I would reiterate the critical point that people should apply before the June 30 deadline which of course is already six months after the end of the transition period.
“If somebody does apply late, and there are reasonable grounds for them to have done so for example he might have been ill or had some other reason why they couldn’t have done it, and then latitude, will be shown there is no hard time deadline to that a reasonable approach will be taken.”
In February, when over 5 million applications for residency status have been received, The Home Office secretary, Priti Patel, welcomed the news saying that it is a “hugely successful” scheme.
“It’s the biggest scheme of its kind in UK history. It will mean European citizens and their families can continue to call the UK home.”
On Monday 7 May, a member of Parliament, Chris Philip, added that the government had given £22 million grant funding to 72 organisations that help people with settled scheme applications.
Final deadline
The deadline for application for the Settlement Scheme finishes on 30 June 2021. Organisations fear that many people might miss the deadline, thus becoming illegal residents.
Kuba Jabłonowski, Research Fellow at Exeter University, says that :
“Only after the deadline will we be able to say here is a person who had not applied and lost status as a result”.
“Actual harms will be visible after the deadline and not right away, but as people come into contact with hostile environment measures, e.g. when seeking healthcare or social assistance etc.”
The government has urged people to apply for residence status on their websites.
The article was first published on 15 March, and it was updated on 8 June.
