Post-brexit EU migration system could see repeat of Windrush
HOME Office officials fear the postbrexit EU migration system could prompt a fresh Windrush scandal because older people may find it difficult to prove their right to live and work in the UK.
Concerns about elderly EU nationals and those who have come to the UK to care for children or family members but do not appear on Government records have been raised with EU partners.
Amber Rudd’s department is understood to be considering setting up a hotline to help older people use the new EU system, after fears were raised many would not be able to use the new app the Home Office is planning to roll out.
Ministers announced a hotline for Windrush citizens on Monday, after it emerged some people may have been deported. It received 49 calls on the first day and officials are looking into 232 cases. It came as Lord Kerslake, former head of the Civil Service, said some ministers in the former coalition were so unhappy with the changes brought in by Mrs May when she was home secretary they spoke of them in the same terms as the Nazis.
The first four cases were resolved yesterday, the Home Office said. The row has led to fresh concerns about post-brexit migration, amid claims the Home Secretary is delaying the immigration bill, to the frustration of Brexitsupporting ministers in the Cabinet.
The Home Office has been developing a mobile phone app and website in order to speed up what is expected to be a mammoth bureaucratic task, registering 3.2million EU nationals. EU diplomats continue to voice concerns about the numbers of EU citizens who do not have an obvious “paper trail” in the UK.
“The app is pretty good, but it doesn’t cater for the hard cases. What do you do about a grandmother who came to the UK to, say, look after her grandchildren? She has not paid taxes, she does not have her name on utility or council tax bills and so has no obvious way to prove that she was resident in the UK before the end of the transition period,” said an EU diplomatic source.