An EU citizen caught up in a Home Office backlog of applications for post-Brexit residency status is to be deported by Border Force officials in Scotland.
Costa Koushiappis, 39, who is Greek Cypriot, has been told to show up at Edinburgh airport at 7am on Friday to be forcibly put on a flight to Amsterdam just weeks after he received an email from the Home Office to say it could take a further 24 months to process his application for status.
The case raises questions about whether the new Labour government has addressed the Home Office’s hostile environment policy, introduced by Theresa May and designed to reduce immigration.
Koushiappis’s original application for pre-settled status given to those in the country for less than five years before Brexit was rejected but he immediately requested an administrative review.
He was given an official certificate of application by the Home Office, a document that is designed to prove to employers, landlords and the NHS that the applicant has the right to work, reside and live in the country while a decision is pending.
He was detained for six hours in Edinburgh on Monday night after flying in from Amsterdam after a short trip, his fingerprints were taken and he said he was told by border officials there were not sufficient grounds to be in the country.
He had shown them the certificate of application and explained that he was working and living in the country for three years and was also living in the country before the Covid pandemic in 2020.
“They said I didn’t have enough or convincing information about my situation. They gave me three days to sort everything out. I said: ‘That is not possible. I have been here for three years living and working here. I have a flat, I have furniture, a vehicle – I can’t just leave things.’ They told me if they wanted to they could put me on a plane that night and they were giving me three days.”
It is understood the Home Office do not recognise these claims about the Border Force encounter and a thorough conversation with the individual had taken place and that the administrative review will continue to take place irrespective of the removal decision.
“I am in a foreign country. I am doing the best I can. I contribute to society. I pay my bills, I pay my rent, I pay my tax.”
Immigration lawyer Andrew Jordan, who works for the charity Settled, which supports vulnerable EU citizens in the UK, said: “It is very sad because this case is just indicative of the need to abide by due process.
“All we are saying is give this a chance. He has got a pending case. It’s been pending for more than two years and he just wants to wait for that outcome.”
Stuart West-Gray, his employer at a motorcycle firm, described Koushiappis as a “star” employee. He has been helping him deal with Border Force and was on the call Koushiappis made to the Home Office earlier this week to try to resolve the issue.
He said that the Home Office had given him two new share codes – the digital codes given to prove status to employers and the authorities – both of which confirmed his rights to live and work in the UK.
He wrote to Border Force sharing the codes but was told that it was not good enough.
“Any EU/EEA national seeking permission to enter as a resident must hold valid EUSS (not pending) or a relevant entry clearance in the category for which they are seeking permission,” an officer said in an email seen by the Guardian.
Koushiappis’s case is one of a number of similar cases in which EU citizens have been threatened with removal at the border when they show a certificate of application.
In January, a Spanish woman was removed from the UK after she returned from a Christmas holiday and told she was “wasting her time” if she thought the Home Office documentation was sufficient.
Last month a Polish man living in the UK since his childhood was given an 11th-hour reprieve after a similar incident.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
