Photo: Courtesy and copyright of the family
An Italian restaurant owner and his British wife had their bank accounts frozen overnight, following a 15-year tradition, in a post-“disaster” tactic they say was designed by the government to scare immigrants into leaving the UK.
Massimo and Dee are two of thousands of EU citizens who discovered their permanent residence (PR) cards had been invalidated by Brexit and did not give them the right to remain, even after 21 years of paying tax in the UK.
Representatives of EU citizens campaign group 3million fear worsening is to follow the government’s “shameful” decision to make it harder for people like Massimo to get the EU settled status they need instead of a blue PR card.
The3million said it has seen many permanent residents summarily denied under this new rule.
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Andreea Dumitrache, interim chair of the campaign group, said: “From August, not knowing that you needed to apply for the settlement scheme despite having previously been issued with a document confirming your residence rights is no longer considered a reasonable justification for late application.”
He said it was a shame that EU citizens living in the UK before Brexit were guaranteed residency rights under the legally binding EU-UK withdrawal agreement. “Many people still do not know they have to apply for an EU settlement scheme, as evidenced by the awarding of more than 4,000 successful statuses per month to late applicants before the disastrous scheme changes introduced in August,” he said.
Dee and Massimo, who did not want their surnames used, first learned of the dangers of immigration when a supplier called to say the invoice had not been paid. They had just moved from Kent to Belfast to open a restaurant and, for convenience, decided to close their English business account with Santander and open a new account with a Northern Ireland address.
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However, within a few weeks they were blocked from accessing the new account and Massimo was blocked from his personal account. Dee said: “As a result, we had to close the doors of our business as we were unable to pay suppliers and we had just opened the restaurant. “We were expanding the business and no one at Santander was prepared to discuss it with us.”
It was a huge blow when they discovered that Massimo had to apply for settled status. He said: “I never thought something like this would happen. I’m a pretty strong person but deep down I’m very emotional because it’s like I’ve been rejected from a country that I’ve been in for 20-something years and I’ve done nothing wrong and one day they say ‘goodbye’ ‘Bye’, no explanation, no nothing. It was terrible.
“I think about how many people like me are no longer welcome in this country.”
In a bid to unlock business-critical funds, they decided to remove Massimo as business manager from the UK Companies House’s official register. A few weeks later, following an investigation by the Guardian, his bank account was unfrozen but his personal account remains unreachable.
The bank declined to discuss details. A Santander spokesman said: “We are investigating Mr. [redacted]’ complaint.”
But immigration lawyers have warned that the “hostile environment” policy introduced by former prime minister Theresa May after Brexit will apply to EU citizens, many of whom have lived in the UK for decades, some retired, some in care.
Under the policy, the Home Office outsources immigration enforcement and imposes financial penalties on employers, landlords and banks that do not check people’s immigration status.
Dee said: “There are probably a lot more people in this situation and it’s scary. People become homeless this way, that’s the scariest part: One minute your bank account is opening, you’re living your life and the next minute… That’s why we want to share our story “The sickening and disgusting part is that everything depends on bureaucracy and bad laws.”
Under the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, the UK must guarantee the rights of EU citizens living legally in the country before Brexit, while EU countries must do the same for British citizens living in the bloc. The scheme closed in June 2021, but the government has promised to accept late applications if there are “reasonable grounds”.
However, they changed the rules in August, so lack of awareness of the EU solution plan is no longer a justification.
The3million has called on the government to urgently abandon the new rule on late applications, arguing that it goes against the spirit, if not the spirit, of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
He says the Ministry of Internal Affairs is cutting corners, rejecting applications due to a lack of “reasonable grounds” for missing the deadline and not giving people the right to appeal. This removes the safeguards in place for EU citizens to access their rights.
Dumitrache said this was another example of authoritarian policy that punishes people, unfairly stripping them of their rights, because the Home Office is stuck with the relatively small number of “speculative” applications it has the capacity to manage.
The Home Office said: “Permanent residence documents issued under the EEA Regulations confirmed a person’s status in the UK under EU free movement rules. We have long known clearly that the validity of such documents expires at the end of the grace period on June 30, 2021.
“More than two years have passed since the widely publicized deadline to apply for the programme. “In line with our commitments to the Citizens’ Rights Conventions, we continue to accept and evaluate late applications from those who have reasonable grounds for delaying their application.”