At 51, he moved to Sweden with his wife in the hope for a better life; at 60, he is being asked to return to Britain. With authorities on his back and no option in the future, Mark Smith has been forced into hiding alongside his wife Petra due to fears he will be deported as a result of what he says is a government Brexit residency error, as per a report by The Guardian.Smith, who has had heart attacks, strokes, severe headaches and chronically high blood pressure, was told on the phone that he should leave Sweden by October 17, as he was an "alien" without permission to stay. Terrified of deportation, he and his wife moved out of their home in Falkenberg, in south-west Sweden, to a caravan park. "We are in hiding; we daren’t go back to our apartment. We are scared to go out as we don’t know if the police will come and take us," Smith said.A court ruled on October 12 that a decision on deportation would not be suspended but gave him until October 20 to "submit his application for a retrial" in relation to "the grounds for the decision on indefinite deportation."It was back in 2017 that he moved to Sweden. At the time, Smith was told by the authorities that he did not need to do anything to stay after Brexit in 2020. He had a job, private health insurance, and was registered on the population register administered by the national tax authority, as required under Swedish rules.
However, he was unaware that Sweden was among 13 of the 27 EU member states that required Britons living in the country before Brexit to make a formal application to remain. “I asked the tax authorities three times on different occasions if I had to do anything because of Brexit and they said no, telling me I had to wait for five years to apply for permanent residency," he told The Guardian. “Because it was the tax authority, a government body, I took it for granted that what they told me was correct,” he added.It was in 2021 that Smith's troubles began, when he started to get ill and applied for sickness benefit. He was then told by the officials that he should have applied for post-Brexit residency. The couple did so immediately at the end of 2021, with the deadline being 31 December. They waited for two years to hear back and when they did, it was only to get a rejection on the grounds that they were not married and therefore did not have a family connection to merit his residency in Sweden.Having lived together since 2017, the couple tied the knot in 2023. “We were so much in love; we lived together, we did everything together, even now we hold hands walking down the streets. We wanted to get married, we wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to ask Petra’s father for permission and have him give her away, but two weeks after he gave me permission to marry his daughter, he passed. So we were looking into marriage but things just kept happening.
But we don’t understand why this matters,” said Smith. Family connections are not a criterion under free movement rights, which apply to any individual regardless of marital status, so campaigners believe they have a strong case.The couple also said they had not been given the full court paperwork from the first case appealing against the migration agency's decision, so they appealed to a higher court without the full arguments against them.
After speaking to a judge, Petra has had assurances that all the paperwork will be sent to them by post, but they feel angry that they were not apprised of the information that the migration agency was arguing before the courts.According to David Milstead, a British-Swedish volunteer citizens' rights activist working with Brits in Sweden group, Smith's case was typical of many Britons living in Sweden. “Mark’s experience is far from unusual.
I have encountered many British citizens who actively sought information from the Swedish authorities about their residence rights after Brexit, only to receive vague, unhelpful answers, sometimes being told that they needed to do nothing,” he shared with the outlet.Milstead said Smith’s case was “depressingly familiar” and should warrant the urgent attention of the European Commission, which has previously said Sweden was not breaking any laws.
“A gentleman with Mark’s serious health conditions should not be having to fight deportation. It is difficult to understand how the European Commission has concluded that Sweden’s treatment of late applications under the [Brexit] withdrawal agreement does not warrant a challenge,” he said.According to Petra, Smith's health conditions have left him so vulnerable that she is not sure "if he will last until Christmas."
“He has been told he can’t drive, he can’t fly – what do they expect him to do? Get up and walk to England? Come on, Sweden, we need to step back from all of this and be better,” she said.After 12 years with Smith, she said deportation would be devastating for her and her 15-year-old son with special needs, whom Smith co-parents. “It is wrong what they are doing; I feel ashamed to be Swedish. What they are doing is racist to British people,” Petra said.78-year-old widow Joyce Thomas, whose husband also inquired about Brexit residency and was told by the tax authorities there was nothing to do, is fighting a removal order. Previously, Sweden has deported 458 Britons, including one man who had been in the country since he was 10 years old, and a 65-year-old man married to a Swede with no family or property in the UK. The country also issued removal orders to a man with dementia who is in 24-hour care and has been in the country for 25 years.
The Scandinavian country has found itself under mounting pressure over its approach to the withdrawal agreements having deported 458 Britons.Under the legally binding treaty, it was agreed governments would communicate Brexit residency rules, consider late applications on reasonable grounds and exercise "proportionate" decisions including in the case of vulnerable people. Sweden’s migration agency has said there is no evidence Sweden has taken an extreme approach to the withdrawal agreement.The UK Foreign Office has raised concerns about Sweden’s approach to the withdrawal agreement with the European Commission on numerous occasions, but has been told Sweden is not breaching the agreement. “We are in touch with Mr Smith and are providing consular support. We know this is a distressing and challenging time for those concerned and we are urgently raising the situation with both the Swedish authorities and the European Commission,” said a spokesperson.The Foreign Office welcomed a statement by Sweden’s former migration minister Johan Forssell in August that Sweden would examine “additional measures” that would address the issue of Brexit deportation, and a similar declaration by Magdalena Andersson, who is on track to form the new government.