The family of a woman with Alzheimer’s who is threatened with deportation from Sweden have vowed to do anything they can to stop her removal because of a promise they made to their children.
Kathleen Poole, 74, is facing forced removal from Sweden, her home for 18 years, after immigration authorities rejected an application by her family to stay in the country post-Brexit on the grounds her paperwork was incomplete.
The family pleaded with the authorities in a personal letter explaining her situation but last week were told police were “pressing” ahead with the removal plan, asking the British embassy to find Poole a care home in the UK.
Her daughter-in-law Angelica says that while she is “exhausted” by the situation, she must keep the promise she made to her four half-Swedish children that their grandmother would not be taken away by the police.
“I want her to stay here and we are going to make sure she does. I don’t know how yet, but I promised the children and I never break promises to my children,” she said.
“I’m exhausted by all of this, I’m really tired because of all of this, but we are not going to give up.”
The Labour MP Hilary Benn has described the case as “deeply shocking” and called on the European Commission to intervene urgently, while campaign groups have called on the Swedish government to act swiftly to stop the deportation.
Campaigners at British in Europe, a grassroots organisation set up to protect the rights of British nationals living in the EU before Brexit, has raised the matter with Brussels.
Jane Golding, a lawyer in Berlin who has co-chaired the campaign group, has also raised the alarm with the European Commission, writing to it last month and again on Monday.
“Kathleen Poole and her family shouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. We warned that it would be vulnerable and elderly people who would suffer when the UK and some EU countries like Sweden decided to go for a system where citizens had to reapply for their status post-Brexit,” she said.
She called for “a swift resolution now to put an end to the uncertainty and distress that Kathleen Poole’s family are living under”.
She also said there should be guidelines across the EU to guard against similar cases, asking what would happen if a person in care had no family to advocate for them.
“What happens if you have lived in another country for years and your residence now depends on a successful application and you aren’t capable of making the application yourself? The withdrawal agreement is supposed to protect people in this situation, to make applications as smooth, transparent and simple as possible, and to ensure that decisions are proportionate,” Golding added.
The Poole case highlights concerns about Sweden’s approach.
“This is typical of the way that Sweden has applied an overly technical interpretation of the withdrawal agreement whilst also appearing to ignore important safeguards of the treaty which are designed to ensure that people like Mrs Poole don’t get deported,” said David Milstead, a professor of physics who is part of the British in Sweden group.
“The case of Mrs Poole is not unique – a number of longstanding residents have been forced to leave,” he said. Although the Poole application was not late, some British citizens in Sweden and Denmark were threatened with deportation because they did not realise on time that a formal application to stay in the country was required.
“The most effective thing Sweden can do now is urgently look at how they are treating late applications. Sweden’s outreach programme for UK nationals was extremely weak and around 900 late applications have so far been received. It’s not too late to help those whose applications are undecided or who are appealing to keep their residence.”
