Verhofstadt assured over ‘settled status’ deadline breakers
EU citizens in UK will not be deported automatically if they fail to register with good reason
EU citizens living in Britain who miss the deadline for applying for “settled status” by mid-2021 will not face automatic deportation, the government said on Friday.
The statement came after Guy Verhofstadt, European Parliament co-ordinator on Brexit, said he had been reassured that the UK would be lenient with any EU national who missed the deadline with a reasonable cause.
“The impression had been given that anyone who missed the deadline would be out,” the former Belgian prime minister told the Financial Times at the end of a two-day visit to London.
An estimated 3m EU citizens have until the end of 2020 to register for the EU settled status scheme, allowing them to stay in Britain with existing rights after Brexit, with a six-month “grace period” extending until June 2021.
Fears that those who failed to register in time could be deported were stoked by Brandon Lewis, the security minister, who last year warned that European citizens living in the UK risked being sent home if they fail to apply for permanent residence by the deadline.
“If EU citizens have not registered by then without an adequate justification, the immigration rules will apply,” he told the German newspaper Die Welt.
But Mr Verhofstadt said he had been reassured by Steve Barclay, Brexit secretary, that the British government would be lenient with those who had a genuine cause for missing the deadline and would try to help vulnerable people.
An ally of Mr Barclay confirmed: “If someone doesn’t have settled status after June 2021 and haven’t applied on reasonable grounds then they will be able to stay. We particularly want to help vulnerable people, but you have to have a cut off date otherwise people won’t bother to register.”
They added that the settled status scheme was already working very well and that some 2.8m people had already successfully registered.
Meanwhile, Mr Verhofstadt failed to persuade the Brexit secretary to issue paper certificates proving settled status — as requested by some EU citizens — as physical proof of a right to remain.
Mr Barclay said people could take screenshots of emails confirming settled status, but that paper documents could be susceptible to fraud.
The European Parliament has also raised concerns over the independence of a monitoring authority to be set up in the UK to protect the rights of EU citizens under the terms of the withdrawal agreement.
Mr Verhofstadt claimed the authority would not be fully independent because it was being set up under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice, which would appoint a panel to select members.
He wants a guarantee that there would be a place on the authority — which could theoretically sue the Home Office if it fails to uphold the withdrawal agreement — for representatives of EU citizens. “My concern is it’s not independent,” he said.
Mr Barclay’s spokeswoman said that EU citizens, including lawyers and other qualified professionals, would be free to apply to sit on the authority.