Briton deportation Sweden: Mark Smith in hiding over removal order
Mark Smith, a 60-year-old Briton with severe health problems, is hiding with his wife in a caravan park in Sweden after being told by phone to leave the country by 17 October as an "alien" without permission to stay.
Briton deportation Sweden: Mark Smith in hiding over removal order
Mark Smith, a 60-year-old Briton who has lived in Sweden since 2017, was told on the phone he should leave Sweden by 17 October as he was an "alien" without permission to stay. He is now living in hiding with his wife Petra, and a court has given him until 20 October to apply for a retrial over the grounds for indefinite deportation.
In hiding in a caravan park
Smith and his wife left their home in Falkenberg, south-west Sweden, and moved to a caravan park because they fear police will come and take them. "We are in hiding, we daren't go back to our apartment," they said.
On 12 October a court ruled the deportation decision would not be suspended, but gave Smith until 20 October to "submit his application for a retrial" regarding the grounds for indefinite deportation. The days until that deadline will determine whether the case can be heard again at all.
How the residency application failed
Smith says that after Brexit in 2020, authorities told him he needed to do nothing to stay. He worked, held private health insurance, supported his wife and registered on the population register administered by the national tax authority, as required under Swedish rules. "I asked the tax authorities three times on different occasions if I had to do anything because of Brexit and they said no," he said.
Sweden was one of 13 of the 27 EU member states that required Britons living there before Brexit to make a formal application to remain; Spain, by contrast, only required a residency declaration. The trouble for Smith began when:
- In 2021 he fell ill and applied for sickness benefit, and was told he should have applied for post-Brexit residency
- The couple applied at the end of 2021, in time for Sweden's 31 December 2021 deadline
- After waiting more than two years, the application was rejected on the grounds that they were not married and therefore did not have a family connection meriting his residency
- Smith and Petra married in 2023, having lived together since 2017
It is unclear whether Smith applied for the specific Brexit residency or the usual immigration route. Family connections are not a criterion under free movement rights, so campaigners believe the couple have a strong case.
Health and family at risk
Smith had a minor heart attack on Wednesday night, but wanted his situation publicised because he said the British government needed to know what was happening to expats in Sweden.
His wife Petra said his health conditions left him so vulnerable she was 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?" she said, calling on Sweden to "step back from all of this and be better".
She said deportation would be devastating for her and her 15-year-old son, who has special needs and whom Smith co-parents; the couple had been together 12 years. Petra also said: "It is wrong what they are doing, I feel ashamed to be Swedish. What they are doing is racist to British people."
"It is wrong what they are doing, I feel ashamed to be Swedish. What they are doing is racist to British people." - Petra
A wider pattern and official responses
David Milstead, a British-Swedish volunteer citizens' rights activist with the Brits in Sweden group, said Smith's case was typical of many Britons living in Sweden. He said many British citizens who actively sought information from the Swedish authorities about their residence rights after Brexit received vague or unhelpful answers, sometimes being told they needed to do nothing. Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old widow whose husband was likewise told by tax authorities there was nothing to do, is now fighting a removal order.
The scale is considerable. 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 married to a Swede with no family or property in the UK. A removal order has also been issued to a man with dementia who is in 24-hour care and has been in the country for 25 years.
Campaigners point to the terms of the withdrawal agreement itself. Under the treaty, governments agreed to communicate the Brexit residency rules, consider late applications on reasonable grounds, and exercise "proportionate" decisions, including for vulnerable people.
Milstead called Smith's case "depressingly familiar" and said it should warrant the urgent attention of the European Commission, which has previously said Sweden was not breaking any laws. He added that it is difficult to understand how the Commission concluded Sweden's treatment of late applications under the withdrawal agreement does not warrant a challenge, and that Sweden stands out starkly from other EU countries, with serious questions remaining unanswered about proportionality and the treatment of vulnerable people.
Sweden's migration agency, for its part, 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 it. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are in touch with Mr Smith and are providing consular support." The spokesperson called this a distressing and challenging time for those concerned and said the department is urgently raising the situation with both the Swedish authorities and the European Commission.
The department also welcomed a statement by Sweden's former migration minister Johan Forssell in August that Sweden would examine "additional measures" addressing Brexit deportation, and a similar declaration by Magdalena Andersson, who is on track to form the new government.
For now, Smith remains in the caravan park with Petra. The court has given him until 20 October to apply for a retrial over the grounds for indefinite deportation, and the Foreign Office says it is urgently raising the case with both Swedish authorities and the European Commission.
