The Swedish police are pressing ahead with plans to deport an elderly British woman with Alzheimer’s who cannot walk or talk, in a Brexit-related case that has been described as “deeply shocking” by the Labour MP Hilary Benn.
Kathleen Poole, a 74-year-old widow, moved to Sweden from Macclesfield 18 years ago to be close to her son Wayne and his Swedish wife, Angelica, and their four children.
But 11 years ago she developed dementia and has been in a care home near her family for the past 10 years and is now so incapacitated she cannot feed herself or go to the bathroom unaided.
An application made on her behalf by her family has been rejected because she does not have an up-to-date passport or financial statements to demonstrate her right to be in the country post-Brexit.
The family told the authorities they did not have an updated passport because their mother is bedridden and does not travel.
They had hoped politicians would step in to stop the deportation last month after the case received international press attention and after campaigners at British in Europe pointed out that the EU went to great lengths to ensure guarantees for all citizens affected through no fault of their own by the UK’s referendum result, with the then Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, declaring in 2017 that “Brexit should not alter the nature of people’s daily lives”.
But on Friday the family were told by the British embassy in Stockholm that the police had been in touch “pressing” it to find a care home in the UK.
“It is impossible to say how long it will take but when we have found a care home willing to receive your mum, the police will give us a travel date and we will have to issue an emergency passport,” an official at the embassy told the Pooles.
Benn, the former chair of the now defunct Brexit select committee, said: “This is deeply shocking. What on earth do the Swedish authorities think they are doing? The EU Commission must intervene to stop this from happening.”
Angelica and Wayne have previously protested that moving Kathleen would not just be inhumane but physically challenging, as she would need to be hoisted on to the plane and accompanied by nursing staff.
Angelica said she did not understand why the police were being so “harsh” as the family had recently had contact with immigration authorities who were looking for a medical certificate for Kathleen, giving them hope her case would be reviewed.
“I could not say I am hopeful now because it is the authorities and the police,” she said.
A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting a British woman and her family in Sweden.” They indicated that the Swedish authorities had said late applications for post-Brexit residency status could be made if there were “reasonable grounds” for missing the deadline.
Angelica said her mother-in-law would not be affected mentally by a move to the UK because of the extent of the Alzheimer’s but that it was still inhumane.
“It is the children who are affected. They are not the ones who have to deal with their anxiety and nightmares,” said Angelica, who said her 11-year-old son was worried police were going to show up and take his grandmother away.
Under the withdrawal agreement British citizens living in the EU before Brexit were guaranteed the right to remain but in several countries it involved applications and paperwork to prove historical rights under free movement rules.
But a spokesperson for the Swedish government has said it was “against the law” to comment on any immigration matter.
David Milstead, a British professor of physics in Sweden who is part of the British in Sweden group, said last month: “This is a lady who cannot even feed herself. The police are just doing a box-ticking exercise on what she can take with her but nobody is standing up and saying ‘this is preposterous, this should not be happening’.”
