Thousands of Britons living in Portugal are seeing their lives “crippled and damaged” due to the country’s inability to obtain post-Brexit permits, it has been claimed.
According to Tig James, who heads the British Crusade organisation in Portugal, many British citizens who settled in regions such as the Algarve before the Withdrawal Agreement came into force risk being deported and arrested when they go to enter other countries. Exit of country from the EU.
They also face “terrible consequences” in Portugal, adding the inability to register for medical care, difficulties in registering the birth of a child and obstacles to family reunification, he says.
Nicola Franks, a British resident in Portugal, told Portuguese TV channel SIC that she was turned away while flying to Amsterdam 3 years after moving in with her husband.
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“We knew the deadline and wanted to get here well in advance and make sure all our documents were full and not leave everything for the last minute,” he said.
“In June, I was arrested after flying to Amsterdam and, while looking to enter the Netherlands, I said I had exceeded the duration of my visa.
“The border chief looked at those papers that he had evidently never noticed before and made the decision that they were not legitimate, that in fact they were just residency programs.
“To shorten the story as much as possible, he sent me back to Portugal.
“He told me that everyone in the UK has an apartment card. I told him that Portugal had not had time to transmit them and he laughed and said he was talking and I paid attention and that was the end of his attention.
He added: “I don’t go to the local clinic that has smart doctors and smart people. I showed them my QR code and they said, ‘You’re not a resident, you have to pay. ‘”
Portugal’s border and immigration do not take into account MANDATORY WA biometric cards for each and every British citizen under the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, the expats said.
In mainland Portugal, only a transience document and a QR code have been issued which, according to the British concerned, is not recognized even at foreign borders.
Tig says she knows many other people who have faced Nicola’s upheavals and have been arrested in “every European country. “
“They took their papers, they threw them on the ground because they are just the biometric cards of the Withdrawal Agreement that the Portuguese Border and Immigration Service does give us and that are directed, according to the Withdrawal Agreement, to do so. “she said.
Tig says the challenge has severely affected those who arrived before the Brexit deal came into force in early 2021 and were unable to unload residency at immigration offices due to the pandemic.
She said: “The procedure needed for UK citizens to sign the residence took months to get underway and before that caused a lot of difficulties, particularly for those who arrived just before the end of 2020 who were not allowed to download any residence documents. .
“This meant they were unable to sign employment contracts and many were threatened with retirement, adding five easyjet pilots who had moved to Portugal with their families just for this purpose.
“People alone could not get work, but they were allowed to register for health care, social security, banks, tax office, all known establishments in Portugal.
“Many detainees at the Portuguese borders threatened with deportation.
“Finally, they were allowed to register for residency and a formula was established in which they were given a QR code stating that they all legally resided in Portugal, but this is not the necessary WA biometric card for each and every UK citizen covered by the Withdrawal Agreement. .
“I promised that the cards would arrive soon from July 2019 and that has been the invariable response ever since.
“The reasons for the three-year delay of the immigration department?The staff shortages, the periods, the pandemic and now the Ukrainian refugees. “
Tig claimed that a British citizen he spoke to submitted his application seven times and his documents were lost in the system.
“Two other people were recently detained in Germany because of expired documents,” he said.
“The other two people in Germany had to buy more round-trip tickets because they were told they couldn’t return via Germany, which charged them around £4200.
“Now they are waiting to see if and when they have a hearing date in Germany, after having to hire a German immigration lawyer when they did everything legally and as they said they did. “
A pilot programme to provide UK expats with their long-awaited biometric cards, known as WABC, in the Azores and Madeira in February this year.
No programme has been introduced in mainland Portugal and experts estimate that around 60,000 British citizens living in Portugal are still waiting for them.
A British citizen who asked to be identified said: “There are thousands of Britons with husbands, wives and young people who are almost landlocked in Portugal because there is no way forward. “
An SEF spokesman said existing documents from British citizens living in Portugal continue to be accepted.
“The document with the QR can be used whenever they travel, as proof of their apartment in Portugal, and they also guarantee access to public health and social security benefits,” they said.
“This document containing the QR code has been communicated in a timely manner to the competent European authorities, assuring the holders of all the rights contained in the Withdrawal Agreement. “
A UK government spokesman said in a statement: “We continue to urge the Portuguese government to complete without further delay the procedure of issuing biometric cards to British citizens living legally in Portugal.
“Portugal will have to put into effect without delay and in full the commitments of the Withdrawal Agreement it signed in 2018 so that British citizens have the security they need. “
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