‘It will leave us with nothing’: Fears of Britons in the EU as chances of a no-deal Brexit grow

Sharon Silvey and her husband, Daniel, always dreamed of retiring to France, so they bought a four-bedroom house in Brittany earlier this year.

However, their hopes of a relaxing life in their adopted home have been dashed by Brexit.  

Red tape has meant the couple must spend half the year apart as Mr Silvey works in Munich, while his wife stays in their French home in order to qualify for residence. Britons did not face restrictions like this when the UK was still a member of the European Union.  

Like many of the 1.3 million Britons living in Europe, as the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December approaches, they are furious at the way their lives have been complicated by the 2016 vote. 

“The Human Rights Act guarantees the right to family life, but Brexit has ruined all that. We cannot be together half the year,” said Ms Silvey, 59, a former refugee aid worker from Folkestone, Kent.

“Now we are in a pandemic we need to be together as my husband is recovering from cancer and one of us could die alone. It is us who feel like the refugees.”

She added: “I blame Britain for Brexit but also Brussels for making it so hard for us to be together.”

Since 2016, the number of Britons who have applied for passports from other EU states has risen by 570 per cent, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.  

In 2015, only 3,300 foreign passports were issued to British nationals, but by 2018 this figure had reached 22,700.  

Germany has proved the most attractive country for Britons seeking to live in Europe, with the number seeking citizenship rising by 2,000 per cent between 2016 and 2019, according to research by the University of Oxford in Berlin and the WZB Social Sciences Centre.  

Paul Forster is among these “Brexit refugees”.  

The 39-year-old IT worker moved to Berlin two years ago and plans to apply for citizenship.  

“I became disenchanted with Brexit Britain, London life and had long thought about living abroad. This was the moment to leave,” he said. “Now things seem even worse.”

The Euro Bar in Benalmádena on Spain’s Costa del Sol was ironically named by a staunch opponent of Brussels.

Mark Sampson, 55, who moved from Blackpool to Spain 37 years ago, was an enthusiastic supporter of Brexit. Four years on, however, he is not so sure.  

“I thought the European Union had been taken over by corrupt and inefficient clowns. I lost faith. Anyway, as England is an island, it needed some independence,” he said.  

“But now the negotiations have been handled so badly by useless people on both sides, I am not so sure. How can these people leave the whole future of millions of people until New Year's Eve before they sort it all out? Children could do it much better.”

Louise Saberton, who works for a company in Malta that imports Tesco products to the island from Britain, views the possibility of a no-deal Brexit with dread.  

Tesco’s products are popular not just among the British expatriate population but have caught on among the Maltese.  

However, unless a Brexit trade deal is reached, the company she works for will be unable to import any meat, peanut or fish-based products.  

“It will leave us with nothing. To get a special permit will cost a fortune,” Ms Saberton told The Independent.  

“It is my livelihood and I don't know what is going to happen.”

Ms Saberton and her husband, Phillip Locke, sold their house in Cheshire six years ago to move to Malta. Two years ago, Mr Locke lost his job as an operating theatre manager, leaving her as the sole breadwinner.  

“I just don't know what to think. It makes my blood boil and I have sleepless nights.”

Juliette Couzens met her future husband, Dan, at the Austrian ski resort of Alpbach in the Austrian Tirol when they were growing up.

Five years ago, they moved to Austria where she works as a professional coach.  

“The resort has a special relationship with Britain, but now it will be hard for people to get visas to come and work there,” said Ms Couzens.  

“If my husband were to lose his job, things would be difficult because you need a visa to get a new job.”  

Many Britons in Europe are worried about the future of their children should they seek to return to the UK to study.  

Sally Urwin, 56, a teacher, who moved with her husband to Thonon-les-Bains, near Evian in France, in 1998, has been told by a series of British universities that if her son wants to study in Britain, he may have to pay international fees instead of qualifying for home-fee status.  

“Suddenly we learnt that we may be charged international fees of €30,000 per year. Impossible. The government has issued various very muddled and confusing guidelines. It is very unfair,” she said.  

In Rome, Zoe Adams Green, a translator, resents the way that Brexit means she will not enjoy the same rights as her two-year-old son, Leonardo, who is half-Italian.

Ms Adams, 43, who is part of the British in Europe campaign group, worked in Germany and Spain before moving to Italy.  

She worries that if she wants to return to Britain to look after her parents, who live in Walsall in the Midlands, she must make the move before March 2022.  

Brexit regulations mean that British citizens with foreign spouses who wish to return to live in the UK after that date must earn at least £18,600, and their spouses must meet other criteria.  

“The most important thing for me is I feel stripped of my identity as a European citizen,” said Ms Adams.