UK immigration stance stirs discontent among EU nations

By Target Language Translation Services | Updated: 2021-7-1 17:00

It's reported that some European Union nations have urged the bloc to take legal action to object to the way that the United Kingdom is treating EU citizens who live in the country.

The nations want the European Commission, which is the bloc's executive branch, to get guarantees from London that EU citizens will not be forcibly removed if they fail to successfully obey the UK's new rules.

The British government has insisted any EU citizen who was living and working in the UK for five years prior to its exit from the bloc is entitled to "settled status" and can keep liveing in Britain, claim welfare benefits, and utilize the healthcare system, as long as they applied for the status before the June 30 deadline.

Under a system that was launched in June 2018, EU nationals who had not been in the UK for five years before Dec 31, 2020 could apply for "pre-settled status" before the same deadline.

The Financial Times said "several EU diplomats with knowledge of internal discussions" have said some member states are unsatisfied both with the deadline and with the fact that people who get pre-settled status must then apply for settled status after they have chalked up five years in the UK.

The paper quoted an unnamed EU diplomat as saying the requirement went against both the spirit and the letter of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The Financial Times also quoted an unnamed EU official who said Brussels has repeatedly raised its concerns with London.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who came under pressure to either extend or scrap the June 30 deadline, or to simply grant automatic settled status to people who are qualified, said when told people were running out of time: "I urge them to get on with it."

More than 5.6 million EU citizens successfully applied to remain in the UK before the deadline, with around 2 million of them getting the interim "pre-settled status".

The Guardian newspaper, meanwhile, said the UK's Brexit rights regulator has warned businesses and public bodies not to discriminate against EU citizens who cannot immediately show they have either settled or pre-settled status.

The Independent Monitoring Authority said that, while immigrant EU citizens without such documents will eventually not be able to live or work in the UK, employers and landlords must bear in mind that many applications are still being processed.

Kathryn Chamberlain, chief executive of the authority, said: "If EU citizens feel that their rights have been, or are probably to be, breached, they should complain directly to the public body concerned."

This article is reprinted from China Daily.

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