by An Italian restaurant owner and his British wife have had their bank accounts frozen overnight after 15 years of tailoring in a “disastrous” post-Brexit tactic they say is designed by the government to scare immigrants into leaving the UK.
Massimo and Dee are two of thousands of EU citizens who are finding out that the permanent residence (PR) cards they got were invalidated by Brexit and even after 21 years of paying tax in the UK it doesn’t entitle them to stay.
Representatives at an EU citizens’ campaign group fear the 3 million are worse off after the government’s “disgraceful” decision to make it harder for people like Massimo to get the EU settlement status they need instead of the PR blue card.
The3million said they have seen multiple cases of people with permanent residence cards being summarily refused under this new rule.
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Andreea Dumitrache, the campaign group’s interim chief executive, said: “From August, it is no longer considered a reasonable basis not to know that you have to apply for the settlement scheme even though you have previously been granted a document confirming your residency rights as a reasonable ground for applying late. .”
She said it was disgraceful how EU citizens living in the UK before Brexit were guaranteed residency rights under the legally binding EU-UK withdrawal agreement. “Many people are unaware that they had to apply for the EU settlement scheme, as demonstrated by the more than 4,000 successful status grants per month awarded to late applicants before the scheme’s disastrous changes in August,” a she said.
Dee and Massimo, who did not want to use their last name, first learned of their immigration jeopardy when a supplier called them to say a bill hadn’t been paid. They had just moved to Belfast from Kent to open a restaurant and decided to close their English business account with Santander and open a new one with a Northern Ireland address for convenience.
But within weeks they were locked out of the new account and Massimo out of his personal account. Dee said: “We had to close the doors to our business because we couldn’t pay suppliers and we had just started the restaurant. We were growing the business and nobody in Santander was willing to discuss this with us.”
When they found out that Massimo should apply for settled status, it was a body blow. He said: “I never thought this would happen. I’m a pretty strong person but inside I’m very emotional because it’s like I’ve been rejected from a country where I’ve been for decades and I’ve done nothing wrong and they only say one day ‘goodbye’. , safe’, unexplained, nothing. It has been terrible.
“I wonder how many people in this country who are like me, are not welcome in this country anymore.”
In an attempt to unlock funds vital to the business they decided to remove Massimo as a director of the business in the official register at Companies House in the UK. After the Guardian made inquiries a few weeks later, the bank account was not frozen but his personal account remains inactive.
The bank declined to discuss details. A spokesman for Santander said: “We are investigating Mr [redacted]complaint.”
However, immigration lawyers have warned that after Brexit the “hostile environment” policy introduced by former prime minister Theresa May will apply to EU citizens, many of whom have been in the UK for many years, some retired, some in care.
Under the policy, the Home Office outsources immigration enforcement, with financial penalties for employers, landlords and banks who do not check people’s immigration status.
Dee said: “There’s probably a lot more people in this situation and it’s scary. This is how people become homeless, that’s the most horrible thing about it: one minute your bank account is open and you’re living your life and the next minute … That’s why we want to share our story. The sickening and shameful thing about this is that it is because of bureaucracy and bad law.”
Under the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, the UK must guarantee the rights of EU citizens legally living in the country before Brexit and EU countries must do the same for British citizens living in the bloc. The scheme closed in June 2021 but the government promised to accept late applications if there were “reasonable grounds”.
But in August they changed the rules so lack of awareness of the EU settlement scheme is no longer an excuse.
The3million has called on the government to urgently abandon the new late applications rule, arguing that it is otherwise against the spirit of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
He says the Home Office is cutting corners, refusing applications on the basis of a lack of “reasonable grounds” for missing a deadline, and that people have no right to appeal. This removes the safeguards in place for EU citizens to access their rights.
Dumitrache said it was another example of an authoritarian policy that penalizes people, unfairly depriving them of their rights, for settling a relatively small number of “speculative” applications, which the Home Office has the capacity to manage.
The Home Office said: “Permanent residence documents issued under the EEA Regulations confirm a person’s status in the UK under EU free movement rules. It has long been clear that such documentation was not valid at the end of the grace period on 30 June 2021.
“More than two years have passed since the deadline to apply for the scheme, which was widely advertised. In line with our commitments in Citizens’ Rights Agreements, we continue to accept and consider late applications from those who have reasonable grounds for delaying an application.”
