EU settlement scheme: 'Worry' as deadline nears

A charity is "worried" some European Union citizens living in Wales will miss the application deadline to remain in the UK, post-Brexit.

Anyone who entered the UK under the EU's freedom of movement must register with the settlement scheme by 30 June.

But Settled UK said there were still people in Wales who did not realise they had to apply.

The UK government said "latitude" would be shown if there were "reasonable grounds" for a late application.

People from Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland are also affected.

Settled status will be granted to people who can prove they have been in the UK continuously for five years or more.

Those who have lived in the UK for shorter periods of time can qualify for pre-settled status, which can be upgraded to settled status once the applicant has reached the five-year milestone.

Originally from Poland, Ewa Hughes moved to Wales in 2003 and lives in Pentrefoelas, Conwy county, with her husband and two children.

She has already submitted her application and been granted settled status.

"I was so worried," she said.

"I was saying to my husband, 'I cannot sleep', but in the end we did it.

"It's not very difficult - you just have to have your passport, scan it and follow the questions, and 17 hours later the status came positive."

Her husband Rhydian said it would have been helpful to have more information to make the process "less stressful".

"There were times when me and my wife would be talking and she'd say 'what if they come and get me and take me back to Poland?'

"It was just a grey area really."

Settled UK chief executive Kate Smart said: "I don't want to be alarmist but actually it could be worse than the Windrush situation.

"We can see already there are cases, for example, where there are families who have successfully made EU settlement scheme applications for the parents but have overlooked applying for the children.

"We are worried that there are people out there who have not yet heard about it.

"We know, for example, in Wales there are lots of Italians living in the valleys who've been here a long time.

"People who have been here a long time should not be relying on the documents that they've got."

Ms Smart said there were concerns eastern Europeans who came to Wales "more recently" may be working on farms in rural areas and were unaware of the deadline.

According to the latest figures 92,700 applications have been made in Wales.

It has been estimated there may be 95,000 eligible people in Wales, but on Tuesday, the Welsh government's Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, told the Senedd: "We still don't know the scale of the challenge that remains as it is not possible to accurately calculate the number of EU citizens in Wales who haven't applied.

"This is because the UK government does not know exactly how many EU citizens are eligible to apply."

The Swansea-based Independent Monitoring Authority was set up as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.

Chief executive Kate Chamberlain said a "number of issues" were being raised about the scheme, including the digital nature of the application process and the length of time taken to process them.

She believes "the challenge will come after the deadline", adding that it would be "really important" to handle late applications "with common sense, with compassion".

In recent months, the UK government has faced calls to extend the deadline due to the pandemic making it more difficult for some people to have their passports renewed in order to apply.

On Monday, Home Office minister Chris Philp told MPs the scheme had been open since March 2019 and was "a true United Kingdom success story".

Asked how the government would treat late applications, he said: "If somebody does apply late and there are reasonable grounds for them to have done so - for example, they might have been ill - then latitude will be shown."

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