By Benson Daniel
The wife of a British man facing deportation from Sweden has appealed to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham to intervene, saying her husband is being separated from his home and family despite an ongoing legal challenge against his removal.
The man, identified only as Charles, was detained by Swedish police in Stockholm on September 1 after he and his Swedish wife, Lily, were summoned to a police station. Authorities subsequently told him he would be held in a detention centre and deported within two weeks.
Lily, who is a lawyer, said she was asked to return home to collect her husband’s passport after police took him into custody. She objected, arguing that the deportation case was still before the courts.
Charles moved to Sweden in 2017, three years before Britain formally left the European Union. He had applied for residency before the deadline established for British citizens following Brexit, but his application was rejected in 2022.
Since then, the couple have challenged the decision through several appeals. Lily said they had made six or seven attempts to overturn the deportation decision and accused Sweden’s Migration Agency of pursuing the family for years.
She has now urged Burnham to raise the matter with the Swedish government, questioning how many British families must face similar difficulties before stronger action is taken.
The case has added to growing concerns over Sweden’s treatment of British nationals who were living in the country before Brexit. Under the EU UK withdrawal agreement, British citizens who had established residence in EU countries before the end of the transition period were granted protections, but Sweden chose a system requiring affected Britons to formally apply for residency.
Official figures cited in the dispute show that Sweden has recorded a substantially higher refusal rate for post Brexit residency applications than other EU member states.
According to figures from the European Commission’s 2024 annual report, Swedish authorities had decided 14,233 applications for post Brexit residency. UK government analysis showed that 3,918 applications, representing 27.5 per cent, had been refused.
That rate is considerably above the EU average of between three and four per cent. The figures have fuelled criticism from campaigners who argue that Sweden’s approach has left some long term British residents vulnerable to removal despite having established homes, families and lives in the country.
Charles is not the only British national caught up in the controversy. Other recent cases have involved elderly residents and people with serious health problems, while another British man who had lived in Sweden since childhood was deported earlier this year despite being married to a Swedish citizen.
Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell has defended the country’s implementation of the withdrawal agreement, maintaining that the Migration Agency is applying the rules while allowing residency applications in cases where there are reasonable grounds for delays.
The British government has also raised concerns about the high number of refusals through the EU UK specialised committee, the formal mechanism for discussing problems surrounding the implementation of the withdrawal agreement.
For Lily and Charles, however, the dispute is now an immediate family crisis. She argues that her husband should be allowed to remain in Sweden while his legal case is being considered and is seeking political intervention to prevent his removal.
The case is likely to intensify scrutiny of the way Brexit related residency rights are being enforced across Europe, particularly where British nationals have spent years building their lives in countries where they believed they had secured the right to remain.
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