'Question marks' hang over UK government’s plan to register EU citizens after Brexit, warn MEPs

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EU politicians have demanded guarantees that European citizens living in the UK after Brexit will not suffer the same fate as victims of the Windrush scandal.

The European parliament’s Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said the scandal that has seen people targeted for deportation despite having lived in Britain for decades, has created huge “anxiety” among UK-based EU citizens.

Following a meeting with UK officials he and other members of the parliament have listed a series of “question marks, requests, recommendations” to be sent to the Home Office as Brexit negotiations continue.

Theresa May has been keen to stop the Windrush debacle becoming a wider story about the “hostile environment” approach to dealing with immigrants introduced when she was home secretary.

The prime minister is also under intense pressure over her general approach to Brexit, having suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords aimed at softening her approach, while hardline Brexiteer Tories have also criticised her proposals and questioned her commitment to withdrawal.

Home Office civil servants travelled to Brussels on Tuesday to meet with Mr Verhofstadt and others to explain the bureaucratic process European citizens will have to go through if they want to stay in Britain after the UK leaves the EU.

The senior Brussels figure requested the meeting amid rising concern about the UK’s immigration practices in the wake of the Windrush scandal, which has seen the British government promise compensation to people wrongly targeted for deportation.

Mr Verhofstadt said: “I have to tell you that the main reason for this meeting was to get all the information from the Home Office.

“Certainly after the Windrush scandal there was a lot – and there is still a lot – of anxiety for EU citizens living in Britain that they could have the same experience in their future.

“We agreed at the end of the meeting that from the side of the European parliament a number of question marks, requests, recommendations will be sent by us to the UK authorities.”

He said he would lay out the parliament’s concerns in a letter to the UK government, saying any system for EU citizens to secure settled status should be by way of “declaration”, rather than an application that the UK government would have to process.

MEPs also want the system to be free for EU citizens living in the UK, on the basis that they had no part in the Brexit decision.

Mr Verhofstadt said: “It means that if people fill in all the data that are necessary then from that moment on there is that status and it is not necessary to wait for weeks and months, not to say years, before the Home Office is agreeing with this.

“We are looking naturally also for a cost-free because it is not the fault of the EU citizens that they have to ask for status – it is because of Brexit. If there wasn’t Brexit there shouldn’t be a special status for EU citizens in the future and there wouldn’t be a reason to apply for such a status.”

He also added that each family of EU nationals should only have to make one declaration instead of one for each person in it, and that there needed to be special provisions for vulnerable people or those not able to use a digital registration system.

The parliament also insisted that British citizens living abroad at the point of exit should be guaranteed full rights to freedom of movement across the EU rather than just for the country they’re currently resided in.

European confidence in British immigration authorities reached a new low following the Windrush scandal, but it was already dealt a blow last year after the Home Office accidentally sent letters to some EU citizens telling them they had no right to remain in the country.

Ms May described the false deportation notices as an “unfortunate error” on the part of the Home Office and later sent other letters to EU nationals pleading for them to remain in “open and diverse” Britain.

The prime minister and home secretary, Amber Rudd, have come under significant pressure after it was revealed that Home Office has been threatening to deport British residents, and their descendants, who arrived from the Commonwealth before 1973.

Often children who travelled on a parent’s passport did not have to go through the same administrative process as their mother or father, meaning they lacked some documentary evidence in later life to prove their arrival.

Problems reached crisis point amid the “hostile environment” policy instigated by Ms May when she was home secretary, which saw officials across all wings of government and even private landlords required to demand proof of immigration status before providing services.

A raft of cases are now emerging of people who have every right to live in the UK being denied jobs, homes, medical treatment and even being threatened with removal because they have not had the right documents.

But Ms May is also still facing an uphill push to secure Brexit on the terms she has promised in a string of speeches, having suffered three defeats on her EU withdrawal bill in the last week and more are expected to come.

In particular the government was defeated on its plans to take the UK out of a customs union with the EU after Brexit, leaving a question mark over Ms May’s approach as she now tries to overturn the defeat and fend off other challenges to her proposals in the Commons.

Speaking at an event in London on Tuesday, arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg said Ms May’s plan for a “customs partnership” with Brussels after withdrawal was “completely cretinous”, “impractical, bureaucratic” and “a betrayal of common sense”.

He went on to question Ms May’s commitment to withdrawal, saying: “The prime minister is a very enigmatic figure in this respect. She is carrying out the will of the British people but it’s hard to read what level of enthusiasm she has for it.

“She is doing it, she has never indicated anything other than that, she said ‘Brexit means Brexit’, but she doesn’t – by her nature – express herself unduly emotionally.”

He said it was a “good thing” that the leader can exercise “self control”, but his words come as Brexiteers seek to pressure Ms May into sticking to her commitment to leave the customs union.