UK: Brexit, are European citizens denied their rights? Towards a new “Windrush generation”

Applications lost, hours spent on the phone waiting for information, and a very complicated digital system that the elderly and poorly educated people find impossible to use. For Europeans who have lost their rights after the 23 June 2016 Brexit referendum and are applying for a settled status, the system set up by the Home Office is extremely complex and difficult to use. EU nationals risk becoming members of a new “Windrush” generation, after the name of the ship that brought hundreds of Jamaican immigrants to the UK who had been promised the right to stay but were then deported. This was the conclusion reached by the representatives of “the3million”, the organization founded to defend the rights of Europeans in the UK, who attended a webinar organized by the London Foreign Press Association. “From 1 July, the application deadline, thousands of people who were unable to apply may lose their right to work and stay”, said Luke Piper. “300,000 Europeans have applied for settled status but are still awaiting a decision by the UK Home Office. They are at risk since they are unable to prove their rights and their employer or property owner can ask them to prove their “settled status” any time.
Silvia Guzzetti