Campaign group takes Home Office to court over EU citizens' UK status
A campaign group has taken the Home Office to the High Court, alleging that the department breached the Brexit withdrawal agreement when it stripped almost 1,500 EU citizens of full rights to live in the UK. The group, the3million, lodged its papers at the court on Friday, according to The Guardian.
The withdrawal agreement is the treaty that set out the terms of Britain's exit from the European Union, including protections for EU citizens living in the UK. Many of those residents applied under the EU Settlement Scheme, the government's post-Brexit system for staying in the country. The3million uses "EU citizens" as shorthand for EU, EEA and Swiss citizens resident in the UK before 31 December 2020, along with their family members of any nationality who hold derived rights.
The cases at the centre of the claim involve people who were granted pre-settled status, a form of permission under the scheme, and were later told the decision was an "error". The statement of claim alleges that the Home Office removed those rights without procedural protections required under the withdrawal agreement. The protections it cites include a right of appeal and an assessment of proportionality, meaning a check on whether a decision is in proportion to the circumstances.
The dispute has a second strand concerning people with Italian heritage. In October, the Home Office accepted that a person who provides evidence of Italian citizenship, together with evidence that it was obtained through jure sanguinis (a Latin term for citizenship by descent), would be accepted as Italian from birth. The department had earlier told Brazilian Italians that they had been granted status "in error" because they had not presented an Italian passport when applying, and had only stated Italian citizenship, The Guardian reported.
The3million states that the Home Office told some pre-settled status holders their status had been granted in error on the basis that they were not in fact Italian citizens and therefore not EU citizens. The group says those people were given 14 calendar days to respond to the department.
The court is being asked to declare the Home Office's so-called "grant in error" policy unlawful, through breach of the withdrawal agreement and/or common law, the body of law built up through court decisions rather than statutes. The group also wants the court to order the removal of the offending parts of the published policy. Monique Hawkins is the group's acting chief executive.
The group's lawyers had earlier sent the Home Office a legal warning letter over a policy that lets pre-settled status simply expire, or strips settled status, according to the3million.
Government guidance published in October states that pre-settled status may be cancelled or curtailed at any time, including after a pre-settled status extension has been applied. An April update to the government's guidance states that EU Settlement Scheme status gives a person all the rights provided under the withdrawal agreement, per GOV.UK.
The group is also taking the Home Office to court over travel restrictions linked to the scheme, saying it is defending the right of EU citizens to return to the UK without unnecessary barriers, Free Movement reported. In 2022, London's High Court ruled that the government's post-Brexit settlement scheme for EU citizens was unlawful, Reuters reported.
