Elderly Britons Face Deportation From Sweden In Post-Brexit Row (Worthy News Investigation)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

LONDON/STOCKHOLM (Worthy News) – Elderly British citizens, including a widow and a man suffering from dementia, face removal from Sweden despite their longtime ties to the Nordic nation.

The planned expulsions are linked to Britain’s 2020 departure from the European Union, known as Brexit, a decision that continues to impact millions of people across Europe.

Among those affected is 78-year-old British widow Joyce Thomas, a retired nurse who moved to Sweden more than two decades ago with her husband, who died of cancer three years ago.

Thomas has described struggling to eat or sleep after Swedish authorities ordered her to leave the country because she failed to make a formal application for post-Brexit residence status before the deadline.

“This is absolute hell,” Thomas said from her home in Sweden. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. You get up in the morning, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

BREXIT DEADLINE

Britain formally left the European Union on January 31, 2020, but a transition period allowed British citizens already living in Sweden to apply for residence status under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement until December 31, 2021.

Thomas explained that she and her husband were unaware they needed to submit such an application and only learned of the requirement after traveling to Britain following Brexit.

After numerous applications and appeals were rejected, Sweden’s Migration Agency, Migrationsverket, ordered her to leave voluntarily. However, her removal has been temporarily halted pending further legal proceedings.

Thomas said the prospect of being separated from her son, grandchildren, friends, church community and her husband’s grave has become increasingly difficult to bear.

“Where is the empathy? I’ve lived here for more than 20 years — I’ve got friends, I’ve got family,” she added.

HUNDREDS REMOVED

Between 2021 and 2025, 2,490 British nationals were ordered to leave Sweden, almost one-third of more than 7,500 British citizens told to leave the European Union’s 27 member states during that period, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.

Sweden’s Migration Agency has said 458 British citizens have been deported or forcibly removed from the country since Brexit.

Another case involves George Mason, 74, originally from Hinckley in Leicestershire, who has lived in Sweden for more than two decades and suffers from vascular dementia and vascular parkinsonism.

Mason lives in a specialist care facility and had been ordered to leave Sweden after authorities turned down applications and appeals seeking permission for him to remain.

However, Sweden’s Migration Agency has paused Mason’s deportation until September 28 while his case undergoes another review following a last-minute legal challenge.

GOVERNMENT REVIEW

Mason’s family says doctors have warned that removing him from his current care environment could pose serious risks to his health.

Documents from Sweden’s Migration Agency show that Mason applied for permanent residence in December 2021, but it was denied because authorities said he had not submitted the required documentation to establish his eligibility.

A later application based on his connection to his son, Carl Mason, who has Swedish residency, was also unsuccessful, while further appeals based on Mason’s medical condition failed.

The Migration Court of Appeal concluded that expulsion was proportionate when Mason’s private life was weighed against the state’s interest in maintaining regulated immigration. His family argues that removing a vulnerable man with serious medical conditions after decades in Sweden would be harsh and potentially dangerous.

The cases have increased political pressure on Sweden’s government, with Migration Minister Johan Forssell announcing that authorities are examining whether they can take measures to make the process easier for people affected by the post-Brexit arrangements.

POLITICAL PRESSURE

“The UK is a very important partner for Sweden, and we want British citizens who live and work in Sweden to be able to remain here,” Forssell noted, adding that the government believed the rules should be applied generously.

Opposition politicians have criticized Sweden’s approach, with Håkan Svenneling of the Left Party describing the government’s migration policy as “inhumane” ahead of Sunday’s Swedish election.

The controversy has also drawn attention in Britain, where the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office welcomed the Swedish government’s willingness to examine the issue and offered Britain’s assistance.

The cases come amid Sweden’s broader debate over immigration and increasingly restrictive migration policies, even though the British residents are affected specifically by post-Brexit residency rules.

Sweden has received large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in recent decades, including people fleeing war, persecution and poverty in predominantly Muslim countries. In 2015 alone, at the height of Europe’s migration crisis, about 163,000 people sought asylum in Sweden, fueling political and social tensions over immigration, integration, crime and pressure on public services.

MIGRATION POLICIES TIGHTEN

Since then, Sweden has sharply tightened its migration policies. The government has restricted immigration and, since January, offered some non-EU immigrants with residence permits up to 350,000 Swedish kronor ($37,000) to voluntarily return to their countries of origin.

Although asylum applications have fallen sharply from levels recorded more than a decade ago, the government continues to tighten residency and citizenship requirements.

The shift remains politically divisive ahead of Sweden’s September 13 general election, with opponents warning that tougher policies can unfairly affect longtime and vulnerable residents. The British cases are legally distinct, however, as they stem from post-Brexit rules rather than Sweden’s asylum system.

Thomas, Mason and other Britons threatened with removal now face the human consequences of Brexit more than six years after Britain exited the European Union.