Plans to curb EU migrants arriving in UK are ‘legal’

THE UK government’s plans to restrict EU migrants arriving to Britain could come into effect as early as next month.

British Prime Minister Theresa May reportedly plans to rule that EU migrants arriving in Britain after the Brexit talks process begins will not be automatically entitled to stay in the UK permanently.

She is also understood to have decided that EU migrants who have arrived in the UK before this “cut-off date” will be given rights, as long as British citizens in other EU countries are treated in a similar fashion, according to the ‘Daily Telegraph’.

Legal experts have said there is no impediment to Mrs May doing that, as EU citizens are allowed permanent residency in another EU country only after five years under the so-called Citizenship Directive.

Siobhán Stack, a Dublin-based senior counsel who specialises in constitutional and EU law, said Mrs May was highlighting that the UK was likely be out of the EU in five years.

Therefore, migrants arriving after the talks process is triggered won’t benefit from the permanent residency element of the Citizenship Directive.

“If she [Theresa May] said from April 2017 we would no longer adhere to the Citizenship Directive, then she would be acting unlawfully. But she’s not,” Ms Stack said.

“She’s giving a cut-off date and saying anybody who arrives after this is not going to get the benefit of whatever reciprocal deal is negotiated with the EU for EU migrants in the UK, and British citizens throughout the EU.”

It is unlikely Irish citizens will be affected by the reported plans, given the repeated commitment by both the Irish and British governments to maintain the common travel area.

A spokesperson for Mrs May said she wants to settle the question of the rights of EU citizens living in Britain as a priority, but has not set a timetable for her migration policies.