By Eric KIng-
EU citizens could have their lives turned upside down with bank accounts closed, employment terminated and rental agreements revoked if their current rights to reside in the UK are not guaranteed after Brexit, a leading immigration lawyer has warned.
Andrew Tingley, a leading immigration lawyer, has warned that the lives of EU citizens could be turned upside down with bank accounts closed, employment terminated and rental agreements revoked .
The lawyer from London law firm Kingsley Napley, described a “nightmare scenario” in which EU residents in Britain are denied a right to stay in Britain once Article 50 is triggered.
Tingley told the UK Guardian non-EU citizens are already subjected to what he says is a “deliberate hostility policy” by the Home Office, where life is made so difficult it becomes near impossible or impossible to stay in the country.
Theresa May has stressed the government’s position in relation to EU citizens in the UK on numerous occasions that the guarantee of EU citizens rights to live in Britain cannot be guaranteed unless the rights of 1.2 million British people in the EU are reciprocated.
Although he claims deporting EU citizens would be logistically and politically impossible and politically, the immigration lawyer said the Home Office could use the Immigration Act 1971 to make it as difficult as possible for people to stay.
Tingley said the Home Office has deliberately operated a “hostile environment” policy for years in an effort to get non-EU immigration numbers down “because the Home Office doesn’t have the manpower to do what parliament has asked asked it to do”.
The Home Office, according to him, has outsourced immigration control to employers, landlords, banks and airlines, allowing them to seek proof of residency and create havoc for people if they do not have documents.
“In the nightmare scenario the day after Brexit, an employer who is on the ball, who holds a sponsor licence, will need to see their Europeans are here lawfully and they will ask the question: ‘Have you regularised your stay?’” he says. If not, they may have the right to terminate employment, he says.
“When it comes to renew your lease with your landlord and they say: ‘I want to see something that says something to say you can live here’, you lose your house. The DVLA takes away your driving licence, your bank closes your bank account down,” he said.
“We are dealing with this with non-EU nationals now and up to November, the Home Office outsourced immigration enforcement to a private company called Capita. So when we had clients who were refused, they got calls and text messages every hour asking them to leave the UK,” he said. The forecast is worrying for EU residents and could worsen relations between the U.K and the EU, with the potential for EU countries to retaliate. EU bosses have refused to guarantee right of remain to UK citizens until Article 50 is triggered, leaving much speculation and worry about the eventual scenario for EU nationals who were in Britain before the referendum.
EU residents who have been in the UK before the referendum should have an automatic right to stay, but such a right will naturally require the same treatment to U.K nationals abroad. The U.K could assume that EU countries will reciprocate the guarantee rights for UK nationals abroad if Theresa May takes the lead, the problem is that assumptions are sometimes dangerous. Some technicality or some law or implication accompanying Brexit could make EU countries feel it is impossible to guarantee UK nationals the right of stay there. Despite the anxiety that underlines the uncertainty of political outcomes, Britain and EU leaders should be able to fully discuss the problem in hand for the sake of citizens caught up between the political furore of Brexit .