Theresa May admitted the Home Office made an “unfortunate error” when it mistakenly sent up to 100 letters to EU nationals living in the UK ordering them to leave the country or face deportation.
The prime minister was forced into the statement after it emerged that a Finnish academic working in London had highlighted the warning letter she had received, which told her to leave the UK or risk being detained.
Although Eva Johanna Holmberg has lived in the UK with her British husband for most of the last decade, the correspondence from the Home Office said that if she did not leave the country of her own accord the department would give “directions for [her] removal”. It added that she was “a person liable to be detained under the Immigration Act”.
Holmberg, a visiting academic fellow from the University of Helsinki at Queen Mary University of London, was told that she had a month to leave, a demand that left her baffled. “It seems so surreal and absurd that I should be deported on the grounds that I’m not legal. I’ve been coming and going to this country for as long as I remember,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of image they have of me but it’s clearly quite sinister based on the small amount of info they actually have on me.”
Her story was rapidly picked up on social media, but after the Guardian asked the Home Office for clarification of her situation the department immediately backtracked and said the letter had been sent by mistake.
“A limited number of letters were issued in error and we have been urgently looking into why this happened,” a spokesperson said. “We are contacting everyone who received this letter to clarify that they can disregard it. We are absolutely clear that the rights of EU nationals living in the UK remain unchanged.”
Later, May described the situation as an “unfortunate error”, adding: “I understand they moved quickly to contact the people who had received these letters and assure them they were not going to be deported and I want to assure EU nationals here in the UK that their rights and status in the UK have not changed.”
The government has repeatedly told the 3.5 million EU nationals living in the UK they did not need to apply for residency after Brexit because their status was not at risk. Despite this, there have been several occasions where people have been told wrongly they should leave the country after trying to apply for permanent residency but this is the first time the Home Office has issued a letter telling people to leave.
After the mistake came to light, the Home Office called Holmberg to “apologise profusely”, she said. But the person who telephoned her would not confirm that the government would cover her legal costs of about £3,800. “The best way to apologise and ease my distress would be to cover my expenses,” she said. The Home Office would not say whether it intended to cover the costs of those who received the letters.
Holmberg added that the situation was evidence of serious failings at the Home Office. “I believe this is a case of incompetence,” she said. “They don’t have enough resources to handle their application procedures and there is, so to speak, a fault inbuilt in the system.”
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the home affairs select committee, said the error was disgraceful and would have caused anxiety and distress for the families affected.
“We cannot afford for the Home Office to make mistakes like this,” Cooper said. “Ministers will need to set out how many other errors have been made, and what is being done to remedy them. I am very concerned about the Home Office’s capacity and capability to deal with changing arrangements for EU citizens. The home affairs select committee will be taking evidence on this when parliament returns.”
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said the error would no doubt “cause a lot of anxiety”. She said: “As this government is prone to U-turns the only assurance worth anything to those affected is official documentation of their settled status.”
Holmberg had lived in the UK without complications for some time, but on the day May triggered article 50 she applied for a “qualified person certificate” to confirm her right to remain in the UK for her own “peace of mind”.But her application was refused on 29 June because the “University of Helsinki [is] not located in the UK, therefore you are not employed in the UK”.
Holmberg said: “I thought that it seems that they don’t even know what’s going on and that a new system is coming soon so I thought I’ll just wait until they sort themselves out and figure out what kind of documentation and proof is needed. So I spoke to my husband and friends and decided to just leave this; at least I don’t have to leave the UK – it’s OK.
“I realise that I probably shouldn’t have done that because last Thursday I get this notice saying: ‘A decision has been taken to remove you from the UK.’”
James McGrory, the executive director of the pro-EU lobby group Open Britain, said: “It’s little wonder that many EU citizens feel worried about their future status in the UK when they hear of people with every right to be here getting letters threatening their deportation.”
Holmberg’s MP, the Green party co-leader Caroline Lucas, said the affair “beggars belief”. “Mistakes like this are simply not good enough,” she said. “The government is turning lives upside down by callously playing hardball over Brexit and it needs to take its responsibilities far more seriously than seems to be happening at present.”
Queen Mary University of London, decried the government’s letter. Prof Simon Gaskell, QMUL’s president and principal, said: “Whilst it is clearly reassuring that the appalling position in which Dr Eva Holmberg was placed has now been resolved, we should be deeply concerned that such mistakes can be made – and, perhaps worse, that we live in times when they do not particularly surprise us.
“At QMUL, approximately 30% of academic staff come from overseas; their loss would do irreparable damage to the success (in both teaching and research) and international stature of the university.”
Holmberg said the Brexit vote had come as a shock to her. “I tend to be an optimistic person so on the night of the result I decided I’d go to sleep and wait for the result in the morning,” she said. “My husband, who was less optimistic, stayed up all night and watched it unfurl. The irony is that he was actually interviewed by the Finnish media on the day and he said: ‘I’m worried this will make my life and my wife’s life more difficult,’ and they were prophetic words.”
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