Very few European retirees living in the United Kingdom have filed on time to be able to stay there after Brexit, raising fears that thousands more will find themselves threatened with deportation, a parliamentary report noted on Friday.
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After the United Kingdom left the European Union, nationals of EU member countries, but living on British territory, had until the end of June to submit their resident application, which more than 6 million of them. But according to a parliamentary report released on Friday, only 2% of those claims were submitted by people over 65, a percentage far from reflecting the share of European retirees living in the UK.
"
The fact that only 2% of applicants are over 65 suggests that older people may have been overlooked or simply could not file their application before the deadline,
" said Charles Hay, chairman of the commission. European affairs in the House of Lords, responsible for drafting the report.
The situation is "
particularly worrying for Italian nationals who emigrated to the United Kingdom after the Second World War
", it is specified in this text. The application for residence status had to be made online, a maneuver disadvantageous to seniors, often unfamiliar with new technologies, the associations had warned. They have indeed met "
many people who do not have a cell phone, no digital access and inappropriate or non-existent documents
", adds the parliamentary report.
Associations helping seniors to make their request have been campaigning for a long time for the exclusively digital approach to be abandoned, also asking that a physical paper document prove the status of residence, which is not currently the case. .
“
Without a physical document, EU citizens living here can have difficulties, for example, in obtaining a lease,
” stressed Charles Hay.
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Recalling that the British government had "
welcomed the EU's decision to issue a physical document to all British citizens in Europe
", the chairman of the European Affairs Committee called on ministers to "
explain this contradiction
".
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