In recent weeks, 12 citizens of European Union countries were detained upon landing at UK airports and taken to immigration expulsion centers.
This is the “hostile environment” policy of some police and migration services officials. The majority of those detained were women.
The reports of some victims to the British newspaperThe Guardian indicate that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg.
Apparently, the expulsions are based on a misinterpretation of the new post-Brexit legislation for immigrant workers.
Expelled migrants are Italian citizens, Greeks, Spanish and Bulgarians. They were without a work visa, but had job interviews scheduled.
The British Home Office, the Home Office, guarantees that visitors in these conditions can “go to meetings, conferences, seminars, interviews” and “negotiate and sign agreements and contracts”.
Other citizens were in violation of the new rules, which now prohibit European citizens from attending unpaid internships.
Arrests
Eugenia, a Spanish woman detained for 24 hours at Gatwick airport, England, before being expelled, was trapped in a room with several other Europeans.
She said that a girl of Czech nationality arrived on a plane from Mexico and was forced to return to her country of origin, even after offering to pay for a ticket to the Czech Republic.
The Spaniard arrived at Gatwick on May 2, from Bilbao, and now swears she will never return to the United Kingdom. “Like me, that Mexican girl knew she wasn't going to start work straight away, but she thought she could look for a job and return to the UK after getting a work visa.”
The 24-year-old Spanish woman had a return ticket and filled out a digital traveler's form in which she explained everything. Even so, her cell phone was seized and she was locked in a room with other immigrants until she boarded a flight to Barcelona.
Another Spanish citizen, Maria, aged 25, is traumatized by the treatment suffered and fears that he may have contracted Covid-19 as a result of his detention.
She traveled from Valencia to the UK, but was refused entry, even though she offered to pay for a ticket back to Spain on the same day. She was sent with other Europeans to the Yarl's Wood, a detention center two hours from the airport.
Due to a possible outbreak of Covid-19 in these facilities, she was forced to stay locked in her room for three days, scared of the possibility of having been exposed to the virus.
After that, she was released with orders to quarantine at her sister's home in Bexleyheath, southeast London. “They took away my freedom and I couldn’t even talk to a lawyer,” she said.
Hostility policy
Lawyer Araniya Kogulathas, from the NGO Bail for Detained Immigrants, considers that European citizens are beginning to experience the British “hostile environment” policy on immigration first-hand.
"The Home Office you have to explain how exploring the job market or going to an interview is a justification for refusing entry to European Union citizens at the borders”, declared Kogulathas.
Eight MEPs wrote to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, concerned about this situation. “Sending young European citizens to immigration detention centers is extremely disproportionate and violates the spirit of good cooperation that we should expect,” explained Dacion Ciolos, president of the MEPs group Renew Europe.
In response, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman commented: “We are cooperating very closely within the spirit and terms of the agreements we have with the European Union”. (With information from RTP)
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