Surge in rough sleepers sent back to EU countries at height of lockdown

Hundreds of homeless EU nationals were sent back to their home countries under a controversial “reconnection” process during the first eight months of the pandemic, new figures reveal.

Data obtained through a freedom of information (FOI) request and seen by The Independent shows 396 EU citizens in England were subject to voluntary reconnection between March and October 2020. This was up from the annual average of 338 in the previous five years.

The true figure for the pandemic is expected to be higher, as 28 per cent of local authorities did not respond to the FOI request submitted by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

The reconnection service facilitates a process whereby homeless EU nationals who approach their local council for help are offered support to return to their country if they have no right to remain in the UK.

But experts say that while in some cases this is in the individual’s best interests, the process has often been used on those who are legally entitled to remain in the UK and are wrongly informed that they have no option to do so.

Until 31 June 2021, people from the EU who have been in the UK since before the end of 2020 are eligible for EU settled status, which grants them the right to remain in the country after Brexit.

However, EU citizens who arrive in the UK after the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December 2020, and have been out of the country for longer than six months, will have lost their residency rights.

Van Ferguson, senior caseworker at Southwark Law Centre, said it was “astonishing” so many EU nationals had gone through the reconnections process last year at a time when most of them would have been eligible to remain in the UK.

He raised concerns about the lack of information and support they were given.

“If you voluntarily return people you have to explain the consequences.. If there are no safeguards in place at the point of the reconnection – no legal representative, no interpreter – how can it be choice?” he added.

In March 2020, the government enacted the Everyone In scheme, which required all councils to place rough sleepers into emergency housing such as hotels. In July, ministers granted funding to local authorities to “prevent those housed under the scheme from returning to the streets”.

The newly obtained figures show that across the 497 local councils that responded, 3,778 homeless EU nationals were accommodated between March and October 2020 – around 13 per cent of all rough sleepers housed – and that one in 10 opted for reconnection to the EU.

Fiona Costello, a research associate at the University of Cambridge who obtained the figures, said the process of reconnection appeared to be a “postcode lottery”, with some local authorities using the practice “consistently” and others “not at all”.

She said many vulnerable EU citizens were facing barriers to applying for EU settlement, including due to issues with valid ID and necessary paperwork, as well as simply being unaware that they needed to apply.

Sam Dorney-Smith, of human rights organisation Doctors of the World, said the rise in reconnections was unsurprising because the Everyone In scheme meant homeless people with irregular immigration status were more likely to come into contact with local councils who present reconnections as a “first line offer”.

“Reconnecting rough sleepers has become a core offer. But what it can do is just move the problem – there doesn’t seem to be much real evidence that it presents benefit to all individuals,” she added.

Petra Salva, of St Mungo’s, which runs the Greater London Authority’s pan-London reconnections service, said that many homeless EU nationals in the capital had requested to return to their home country to be with family during the pandemic.

“Our clients’ needs are central to the work that we do and where this has been the case, we have worked with local authorities and national embassies who, in response, scheduled in extra flights to facilitate people’s requests to return home,” she added.

However, Benjamin Morgan, European Economic Area (EEA) homeless rights project coordinator at the Public Interest Law Centre, said reconnections were “not always, in fact, voluntary”, and that some vulnerable EU citizens had “effectively been coerced” into agreeing to return to their country of origin.

Warning of an “absence of established guidance or protocols” for how the reconnection process should be carried out, he said: “The overwhelming majority of homeless EU citizens want to remain in the UK and are legally entitled to do so.

“As far as we are aware, local authorities and commissioned services arranging such reconnections frequently do not take the necessary steps to ensure that those taking up offers of ‘reconnection’ will not be returned to a rough sleeping scenario in their country of origin.”

A government spokesperson said that anyone who is eligible for EU settlement was made aware of the opportunity to apply before being reconnected, and that councils must “use their judgement” in assessing support.

“It is wrong to suggest that reconnection is the only option available to rough sleepers. Support is available for people, acting within the law, to resolve their immigration status,” they added.

“The government has also provided £21.5m to organisations which help vulnerable EU citizens apply for the EU settlement scheme.”