Mark Smith, a 60-year-old British man with severe health conditions including heart attacks, strokes and chronically high blood pressure, has moved out of his home in Falkenberg, southwest Sweden, to a caravan park after being told he risked deportation.
Smith has lived in Sweden since 2017. He says he asked the tax authorities on three separate occasions whether he needed to take any steps to remain in Sweden after Brexit, and was told he did not. He worked, had private health insurance, supported his wife and registered on the population register administered by the national tax authority, as required under Swedish rules.
However, Sweden was among 13 of the 27 EU member states that required Britons living in the country before Brexit to make a formal application to remain. Other countries, such as Spain, used a simpler declaration system.
Smith said he was unaware of the application requirement. “I asked the tax authorities three times on different occasions if I had to do anything because of Brexit and they said no, telling me I had to wait for five years to apply for permanent residence,” he told the Guardian.
He was later told by phone that he was an “alien” without permission to stay and should leave by 17 October. A court ruled on 12 October that a decision on deportation would not be suspended, but gave Smith until 20 October to submit an application for a retrial.
“We are in hiding, we daren’t go back to our apartment. We are scared to go out as we don’t know if the police will come and take us,” Smith said.