At 51, he moved to Sweden with his wife in the hope for a better life; at 60, he is being asked to return to Britain. With authorities on his back and no option in the future, Mark Smith has been forced into hiding alongside his wife Petra due to fears he will be deported as a result of what he says is a government Brexit residency error, as per a report by The Guardian.
However, he was unaware that Sweden was among 13 of the 27 EU member states that required Britons living in the country before Brexit to make a formal application to remain. Having lived together since 2017, the couple tied the knot in 2023.
Smith, who has had heart attacks, strokes, severe headaches and chronically high blood pressure, was told on the phone that he should leave Sweden by October 17, as he was an “alien” without permission to stay. We are scared to go out as we don’t know if the police will come and take us,” Smith said. “I asked the tax authorities three times on different occasions if I had to do anything because of Brexit and they said no, telling me I had to wait for five years to apply for permanent residency,” he told The Guardian. “Because it was the tax authority, a government body, I took it for granted that what they told me was correct,” he added. But we don’t understand why this matters,” said Smith. The couple also said they had not been given the full court paperwork from the first case appealing against the migration agency’s decision, so they appealed to a higher court without the full arguments against them. A British-Swedish volunteer citizens’ rights activist working with Brits in Sweden group, Smith’s case was typical of many Britons living in Sweden, according to David Milstead. I have encountered many British citizens who actively sought information from the Swedish authorities about their residence rights after Brexit, only to receive vague, unhelpful answers, sometimes being told that they needed to do nothing,” he shared with the outlet. Milstead said Smith’s case was “depressingly familiar” and should warrant the urgent attention of the European Commission, which has previously said Sweden was not breaking any laws. It is difficult to understand how the European Commission has concluded that Sweden’s treatment of late applications under the [Brexit] withdrawal agreement does not warrant a challenge,” he said. The Foreign Office welcomed a statement by Sweden’s former migration minister Johan Forssell in August that Sweden would examine “additional measures” that would address the issue of Brexit deportation, and a similar declaration by Magdalena Andersson, who is on track to form the new government.
Terrified of deportation, he and his wife moved out of their home in Falkenberg, in south-west Sweden, to a caravan park. “We are in hiding; we daren’t go back to our apartment. “We were so much in love; we lived together, we did everything together, even now we hold hands walking down the streets. We wanted to get married, we wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to ask Petra’s father for permission and have him give her away, but two weeks after he gave me permission to marry his daughter, he passed. So we were looking into marriage but things just kept happening. Family connections are not a criterion under free movement rights, which apply to any individual regardless of marital status, so campaigners believe they have a strong case. “Mark’s experience is far from unusual. “A gentleman with Mark’s serious health conditions should not be having to fight deportation.
After speaking to a judge, Petra has had assurances that all the paperwork will be sent to them by post, but they feel angry that they were not apprised of the information that the migration agency was arguing before the courts.