Polish Londoner
These are the thoughts and moods of a born Londoner who is proud of his Polish roots.
Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Hostile Environment for EU citizens same as for Windrush generation
Letter to Editor of "The Guardian"
Dear Sir,
I can fully understand the impact of the Home Office's hostile environment on the Windrush generation ("Rudd tells MPs: we were wrong" 17/4/16) especially when,with the passage of time, documentation which had never earlier been required disappears and suddenly elderly hard-working and often long retired British citizens are asked to account for everything they have done over the past 60 years.
This same hostile environment is now being visited on vulnerable EU citizens who have been here legally for several decades without any need to account for their activities other than they have been living and working here and bringing up families. Now, disregarding all their current rights as EU citizens at a time when the UK is still a member of the EU, many Poles and other EU citizens have been faced with internment in detention centres, deportations, their children's UK citizenship revoked and their right to free NHS treatment challenged. It is not always possible to have these measures reversed in time.
With the new system for registering settled status and temporary status under way senior Home Office staff have been promising us a "culture change" for EU citizens. I do not doubt their good intentions but I very much fear their earnest recognition of their current toxic work culture and negative attitude to foreign applicants is probably too late to prevent seasoned Home Office officials further down the line interpreting the complex byzantine immigration rules in their own way even when faced with the eventual terms set out in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Following the recent revelations about the treatment of former Commonwealth citizens I remain very sceptical.
Yours faithfully
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