Their detention in immigration detention centers in the United Kingdom but also airport booking areas complain about EU citizens traveling to the country even for job interview facing a “hostile” environment after Brexit.
In a revealing Guardian article, European citizens speak of a traumatic and humiliating deportation experience, despite Interior Ministry rules that explicitly allow visa holders to attend job interviews.
At the same time, there is confusion as to whether European citizens can explore the UK labor market and then return home with a job offer so they can apply for a work visa.
In other cases, visitors violate rules, such as those prohibiting EU citizens from doing so. unpaid internship.
Greeks among those arrested and detained
At least 12 European citizens, mostly young women, were arrested and expelled at Gatwick airport for staying there for more than 48 hours last week, two Spanish women reported to the Guardian, while some were referred to Benfordshire Detention Center.
According to the Guardian, citizens of Italy, France, Bulgaria and Greece are among those detained at either an airport or an immigration detention center.
In fact, the report states that a Frenchman was recently detained at Edinburgh airport for 48 hours, while the Bulgarian ambassador to the United Kingdom confirmed that many nationals are being held in detention centers and deportees.
“I’m still in shock” – What the two Spaniards are complaining about
The two Spaniards were detained at Gatwick Airport on May 2 and 3, when they arrived on different flights from Valencia and Bilbao.
Maria, 25, from Valencia, said there were other citizens in custody. She thought she was free to explore the labor market at least until October, as there was a demand and she had worked in the UK in the past.
The young woman complained that the border guards told her they would deport her and offered to pay for a return flight the same day, but instead was sent to the immigration detention center, where he stayed for three days. When she was released, she was told she had to be quarantined at her sister’s home in south-east London until May 17, with the Border Guard holding her passport. He stated that while he was in the detention center, he could not receive legal assistance. “I’m still in shock,” he told reporters.
The second Spaniard, Eugenia, arrived in Gatwick planning to look for a job offer, return to her country to apply for a visa and then travel back to Britain to live with her Spanish friend, who works in the National System. Health and has been living in the country for four years.
Booked in a room for 24 hours with six other people
“I had a return ticket and filled out a travel form online, explaining all of the above,” he says. However, in Gatwick they took her cell phone and she was detained in a room for 24 hours, along with six other people. Then, they put her back on a flight to Barcelona, ​​along with another Spaniard who had also arrived for a job interview.
The two Spaniards reported that among those detained were two Spaniards, a Frenchwoman and a Czech woman who had traveled from Mexico and was sent back. “She was desperate,” said Eugenia. When she even offered to pay for a flight to Prague but was refused and deported to Mexico.
Deportations were also made against Italians, Portuguese and citizens with Eastern European passports.
The report also said that Luke Piper, a former immigration lawyer working for a team monitoring Britain’s treatment of post-Brexit Europeans, complained that the rules were confusing, but stressed that the border guard service was particularly aggressive. .
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