EU settlement deadline must be lifted to avoid ‘devastating consequences’, warn charities

The Home Office must lift the EU settlement scheme deadline or risk seeing tens of thousands of people become undocumented overnight, charities funded by the department have warned.

In a strongly-worded letter to the prime minister, 45 organisations funded by the Home Office to support vulnerable EU citizens and their family members to apply for EU settlement say that despite this funding, “significant numbers” of people remain at risk of losing their rights.

Following Brexit, EU nationals and their close relatives who wish to stay in Britain must apply to the EU settlement scheme by 30 June, with those who do not automatically becoming undocumented — leaving them unable to access state support and liable for deportation.

In response to concerns about people struggling to apply in recent months, the Home Office has repeatedly cited the fact that it has provided £22m in funding to charities across the UK to help people with the process.

But dozens of these charities – including Coram, Citizen’s Advice and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – state in their letter to Boris Johnson that their success in helping many people apply should not be “used by the government to deny the existence of tens of thousands of EU citizens who are in danger of being left behind by the scheme”.

The letter points out that the onset of the coronavirus pandemic has made their work “significantly more difficult” due to the inability to support applicants face-to-face as well as the fact that many embassies have been forced to close, meaning they cannot process identity documents, creating further delays.

It calls on the government to lift the deadline in order to implement a robust monitoring system to identify who is yet to apply, and not reimpose another one until they can demonstrate that all eligible EU citizens and non-EU family members have secured status via the scheme.

It comes after The Independent revealed last week that there has been a surge in appeals for help to charities from EU nationals and their families members who are struggling to make applications or who have only just discovered they need to apply to the scheme.

The letter states: “If even one percent of the millions of EU citizens resident in the UK are unable to apply, that would leave tens of thousands of EEA+ citizens undocumented, vulnerable to exploitation and facing hostile environment policies including detention and removal.”

The Home Office has said it will take a “pragmatic and flexible” approach when considering late applications, but the charities said they had “serious concerns” about how this would be applied in reality.

Shadow immigration minister Bambos Charalambous called on the Home Office to put “immediate” plans in place to avoid any residents “slipping through the cracks”, adding that it was “worrying” that experts on the frontline are raising concerns so close to the deadline.

Marianne Lagrue, Policy Manager, Coram Children’s Legal Centre, who signed the letter, said that while it was “positive” that the Home Office had provided funding to help vulnerable groups apply, this support  “could never reach everyone”.

“If anything, it has demonstrated to us as grant-funded organisations the high level of need that still exists with barely three weeks to go,” she added.

The latest government figures show that 5.4 million applications have been made under the scheme, of which nearly 5 million have been concluded – leaving almost 400,000 pending a decision.

It is not known how many individuals need to apply overall.

Jackie Murphy, chief executive of Welsh children’s charity TGP Cymru , another signatory, said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused huge disruption to our ability to support people face-to-face, leading to a waiting list of people that has built up over the course of a year.

“We have supported many people via the phone, but many more people require face-to-face support due to the digital barriers they face. In addition, people have not been able to renew or apply for new IDs, which are needed to make the application, due to the backlog of appointments at embassies created by lockdowns.”

Immigration minister Kevin Foster said: “We urge everyone eligible to apply before the 30 June deadline and will continue to leave no stone unturned in helping those who need support.

“We have a dedicated team of more than 1,500 people working to process applications and we have also provided £22m to organisations that support vulnerable people. This funding is available up until the end of September to help our grant funded network continue their vital work.”