A British widow who lived in Sweden will be deported for more than twenty years because of a Brexit-related application form.
Joyce Thomas, 78, moved to the country with her husband and son 22 years ago but did not immediately make a formal application to stay in the country after Brexit.
The grandmother was only made aware of the problem several years after the withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK. Now subsequent applications and appeals to remain in Sweden have been rejected and Tuesday is the last day she can leave the country voluntarily.
After Britain left the EU on January 31, 2020, the British were no longer EU citizens and therefore could not automatically remain in European countries.
Britons already living in Sweden could apply for residency status within 12 months of leaving Britain – but Mrs Thomas said she and her husband, who died three years ago from cancerdidn’t know about the application.
It was only after leaving the country in 2023 that she faced re-entry problems as she was unable to provide authorities with her residence documents.
Despite years of appealing her deportation, the Migrationsverket, the government agency responsible for migration in Sweden, told Ms Thomas she had to leave by September 8, forcing her to leave her son, grandchildren and friends behind.
“I’m tired, I’m really tired and I’m not young anymore,” she told the BBC.
Joyce Thomas, 78, who has lived in Sweden for more than two decades, faces deportation over Brexit-related application
Mrs Thomas, who regularly visits her husband’s grave, added: ‘Where is the empathy? I’ve lived here for over twenty years, I have friends, I have family.’
‘This is absolute hell. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. When you get up in the morning you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ms Thomas added.
More than 20 people, including doctors, friends and priests, testified in favor of allowing Mrs. Thomas to stay.
The grandmother, who attends church regularly, was reportedly still waiting for a response from the government today after her lawyer’s latest arguments.
Her legal representatives previously told a court in Luleå, which upheld the decision to reject her request, saying it was “not proportionate to [Ms Thomas] to be deported simply because she missed a deadline due to insufficient information’.
“Furthermore, it is unacceptable that the Swedish authorities did not inform her that she had to submit an application and within what period it had to be submitted,” they said.
Under Article 18 of the Withdrawal Agreement between the EU and the UK, people who are late in applying for their residence status can still be granted it if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ for doing so.
In the court ruling, authorities decided she was not ‘particularly vulnerable’ and still had a pension in Britain, as well as another son.
The Swedish authorities have said this BBC that they will assess whether measures can be taken to ‘make the process easier for those affected’.
‘I don’t take anything with me from this country. I am self-sufficient, I put money into this country and I have no criminal record,” Ms Thomas told The Guardian last week.
If she does not leave voluntarily by September 8, Ms Thomas could be denied entry to the country and placed on a watch list, preventing her from visiting the Schengen country.
Sweden has reportedly deported or forcibly removed 458 British citizens since Brexit.
Last week, a 34-year-old Briton was deported from the country, despite having lived there since he was ten and married a Swedish citizen.
And last month a family fought to prevent an elderly man, who is receiving specialist care for his vascular dementia and vascular parkinsonism, from being deported despite having lived in Sweden for more than 20 years.
