The expulsion of a Spanish citizen from the United Kingdom revives Brexit tensions

The expulsion from the United Kingdom of a Spanish citizen on December 26, when trying to return to the country where she resides after a brief family visit to Malaga, has once again put on the table the legal insecurity suffered by many community citizens in British territory in the post-Brexit era. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has demanded an explanation from London, “for the expulsion of a Spanish citizen, despite the fact that she had the documentation to enter the country in which she resided with her husband.” .

Albares is confident that it is a “one-time event”, and did not want to add fuel to the fire, but what happened has resurrected the permanent tension that the divorce between the United Kingdom and the EU has left behind. Foreign sources have indicated that the Spanish Embassy in London is taking steps with the Foreign Office and the Home Office (Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior) to clarify the situation of the Spanish citizen.

María (fictitious name, because the Spanish woman did not want to reveal her true identity) was detained at London's Luton airport, where she spent the night, before being returned to Spain by the British authorities. She lives in the county of Bedfordshire (north of London), with her husband and her in-laws. She had traveled to Malaga for a brief family visit. “I went home because my sister had just had a baby girl. Four days later, at Luton Airport, I was put in the detention room, my phone confiscated and told to wait. “I spent the whole night there until they put me on a plane back,” He told the newspaper in Malaga Guardian.

María's situation is peculiar, but not unique. It has to do with the flexibility shown by the British Government with those people who have tried to apply, after the deadline, for the settlement permit —”EU settlement scheme”, in English – which was launched before Brexit came into force, so that all community citizens who were then residing in the United Kingdom (and could prove it) would preserve their rights of residence, work and access to public services such as health or Social helps. 376,370 Spaniards already have their settlement or pre-settlement permit (the first is obtained five years after starting the program, or if the applicant had already been living in British territory for more than five years when they claimed it). In total, 5.7 million community citizens have taken advantage of this scheme.

The deadline to apply for the permit ended on June 30, 2021, but London continues to accept applications that “present reasonable grounds,” and responds to all of them. The problem with these cases is that their legal situation has some limbo and uncertainty. The expelled Spaniard had lived in the United Kingdom between 2014 and 2018, and she later traveled to South Africa to accompany her husband, who was going to finish his doctorate. Only once the pandemic was over were they able to return to British territory. Once back, María requested her settlement permit. She was out of time, but convinced that she could demonstrate that the time spent in South Africa had not been long enough to invalidate the residence rights granted to her by the Withdrawal Agreement signed between London and Brussels.

He submitted the papers in 2023, while preparing to make a change in his professional career, abandon design and start working with animals. In June she received the answer: her application was denied, on the grounds that she had not been able to present the necessary evidence to prove the length of her residence on British soil. She requested a review of the case, and received a Certificate of Processing —CoA, Certificate of Application—. That was the document that allowed her to breathe easy, because it preserved her right to stay, to work, study or receive social benefits, while the file was definitively resolved. That was the document she presented at the airport, upon her return to London, confident that her situation was in order.

“They told me that I was wasting my time, that it was not true that I could work [en el Reino Unido]”explains the Spanish woman.

The British Home Office does not comment on individual cases, but its spokesperson has explained that “the Border Force's number one priority is keeping our borders secure, and we will never make concessions in this regard.”

“Officers may detain any arriving passenger for further examination if they are not satisfied in the first instance that they meet the entry requirements. “This decision is made based on the information provided by the passenger, not on his nationality,” the spokesperson added.

However, the British authorities do not consider the CoA to be an entry visa, and reserve the right to require the person, during border control, to prove that they were resident in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020, the day before Brexit came into force. It is a way to avoid possible fraud. María remains in Malaga waiting for her situation to be resolved.

_