Spanish woman who lived in England for 45 years still fighting for the right to work in UK, a year after leaving work in care home because she couldn’t prove she had valid immigration status.
46-year-old woman, who arrived in Britain at 11 months baby as well as who never left country has been trying to get EU settler status since her employers fired her last June, how they were applied post-Brexit right to-work regulations.
Her undetermined immigration status left she cannot claim unemployment benefits, forcing her debt. Like family main bread-winnerey inability to work It has left her struggling to support two of her teen children and made her lean on handouts from her mother-in-laws pension.
“It was very stressful indeed,” woman, who asked not to be named, he said. “I don’t sleep well because I’m worried about money. gas bill this week for £160. Not always enough for food for each.”
Her husband British like her children. “I don’t think that I should have to go through everything of this is. I went to school here, I worked in this country since I was 18, there are 27 years old of tax payments that they could check.”
Her case was covered by The Guardian. last summer, but although the Home Office said her rights should protected while her application was being processed, she was unable to convince her employers to rehire her. Her case was caught in backlog of about 400,000 unresolved applications to the Home Office’s EU resident status scheme, and she did not receive an official response to her application until March of this year, when she was out of work for eight months.
She was told that her application could not be accepted without a form. of I WOULD. She never traveled abroad and never needed a passport; she was told that her driver’s license and Spanish birth certificate were not proof enough. of I WOULD.
Was born in Spain for a Spaniard father and italian mother she contacted both embassies in United Kingdom for help. The Italian embassy told her that she need apply for based on nationality on descent that may take up up to 10 years old. She said that the Spanish consulate informed her that she should demanded Spanish citizenship before she turned 18; officials asked her 94-year-old father’s Spanish passport, but she hasn’t seen it since the 1980s and hasn’t know where he lives or even if he is still alive.
She does not speak Spanish and is confused by the process of applying for Spanish status. national a citizen in UK, which requires her to complete in forms in Spanish. Now she is assisted by a Hispanic employee of the charity Work Rights Center.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The EU settlement scheme has been overwhelming. success, with more more than 5.9 million grants of status made. EU citizens whose identity has not been verified, but who made application by the deadline of June 30, 2021 are protected and we have social workers who will work closely with those who did not determine their status.
But the woman stated that she had not received adequate support. “I expected that the Ministry of the Interior would receive in touch and say “Let’s get this over with out and get you back in work’. I didn’t think I’d still be going through this year after. I’m angry there were a lot of tears. I can’t support my family,” she said.
activists for The rights of EU citizens say that her case is not unique and state that a large number of people I’m still waiting in backlog of pending cases, which currently number about 225,000, have similar complex applications and have been moved to financial difficulty while they wait for a decision.
Her predicament is reminiscent of of in challenges faced by the thousands of wind generation people who struggled to convince the Home Office that they in UK legally despite having lived here for 40 or 50 years old. The Ministry of the Interior presented a “comprehensive improvement plan” in responding to the Windrush scandal by promising more compassion, complete cultural change and the promise to “see face” behind each immigration application.
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Dr. Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of Center for Labor Rights, said: “I am very concerned for thousands of EU citizens who still waiting for the result on their EUSS applications. The Ministry of the Interior needs to expedite these decisions and also give people with complex applications real chance to secure their status, not to present them with bureaucratic barriers that prevent them in uncertainty for months.”
Luke Piper, head of policy in the3million, mass organization of EU citizens in UK, said “It’s a shame for people for treating him so unfairly by the Home Office. this is clear that someone who lived legally in UK since they were baby should be able to go on with their life as usual after Brexit. Guarantees are failing too many people, jobs and rental opportunities are lost, travel is difficult and EU citizens are suffering.”
Embassy of Spain in London said it couldn’t comment.
“England is the only country I have ever known,” the woman said. added. “It is mine home. I don’t know what kind more I have to do prove It.”
