Woman, 22, faces being deported despite living in the UK all her life
Emma has spent her whole life thinking she was a British citizen.
Born in the UK to a Portuguese mother, she has only ever lived here and has a British birth certificate.
So it came as a huge surprise when the 22-year-old’s request for a British passport was rejected.
Following Brexit, EU citizens living in the UK were offered the chance to apply for settled status.
Last year, however, Emma realised she had missed the deadline to apply.
She understood she was not officially a British citizen when she applied to be a care worker and needed to show the right to work.
She is not allowed to appeal the Home Office’s decision and risks being removed to a country she has never lived in.
“When I got the rejection letter I was basically told how to leave the country,” she said, adding that she was “shocked”.
“There’s a high chance I could be deported to Portugal and I would be separated from my family,” Emma (not her real name) said.
“I would have to start a whole new life.”
Emma was told she had not provided ‘sufficient information or evidence’
Emma’s mother applied for settled status successfully and can remain in the UK permanently.
Emma has been told she can resubmit her application with additional evidence showing she meets reasonable grounds for applying late. She is doing this, but in the meantime can’t work, open a bank account, rent a flat or get secondary care on the NHS.
The deadline for most people to apply for settled status was 30 June 2021, but applications are still considered past that deadline.
In August 2023, however, the Home Office tightened the criteria over “reasonable grounds” for late applicants.
Between July 2022 and June 2023 an average of 1,730 applications a month were found to be invalid, but in August 2023 that figure jumped to 9,470 and in September – the latest month of official data – it rose again, to 13,930.
Emma’s situation is also being encountered by other European citizens in the UK.
Dumitru Calota, a bus driver and Romanian national who has been working in the UK since 2016, was told his application for settled status could be refused on grounds of “false documentation”.
Mr Calota has pre-settled status – permission to remain in the country for five years – which in his case expires in 2025. He has been trying to obtain settled status.
He submitted his HSBC bank statements as proof of residency but was told by the Home Office that his statements were “false documentation” and therefore they are considering refusing his application.
“I was treated like a criminal,” he said. “I didn’t expect an official document to be considered false by the Home Office.”
Dumitru Calota was told he had submitted false documentation
Luke Piper, head of immigration at the Work Rights Centre charity, is concerned that the rise in invalid applications will create a whole new cohort of vulnerable people who might be exploited because they don’t have settled status.
“We’re going to have a long-standing population of people who are undocumented in the UK and they will become more and more entrenched into their being undocumented, not able to work, not able to rent and being exposed to potential exploitation,” he said.
“I’ve come across cases where people who haven’t applied to the settlement scheme are being exploited by bad employers and people smugglers.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “More than two years have passed since the deadline for applying to the scheme, which was widely publicised. We continue to accept and consider late applications from those with reasonable grounds for their delay in applying.
“The EU Settlement Scheme has provided millions of EU citizens and their eligible family members with the immigration status they need to continue living and working in the UK now that we have left the EU.”
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
Read more:
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.
Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.
Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Officers guard one of the crime scenes
Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.
“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.
“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”
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