World
78-Year-Old British Widow Faces Removal From Sweden After Missing Post-Brexit Deadline
By Today News Hours Editorial Desk
A 78-year-old British widow says she is unable to eat or sleep as she faces deportation from Sweden after living there for 22 years, following a missed post-Brexit residence application deadline. Joyce Thomas, a retired nurse, moved to Sweden with her husband more than two decades ago. He died of cancer three years ago. Swedish authorities say Thomas should have submitted a formal residency application after Brexit but failed to do so. Her subsequent applications and appeals have all been rejected, and Tuesday marks the latest deadline set for her voluntary departure. "This is absolute hell," Thomas said from her home in Sweden. "I can't sleep, I can't eat. You get up in the morning, you don't know what's going to happen." When the United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020, British citizens lost their EU citizenship status, meaning they could no longer reside in Sweden under EU right-of-residence rules. A transitional period allowed British nationals to apply for residence status under the terms of the UK-EU withdrawal agreement, but this window closed on 31 December 2021. Thomas said she and her husband were unaware that an application was required and only learned of the rule when she tried to re-enter Sweden in 2023. Following years of appeals, Sweden's Migration Agency, Migrationsverket, informed her last month that she must leave voluntarily by 8 September. Her legal team is contesting the deportation order, and she is currently awaiting a government response. Thomas said the prospect of leaving behind her son, grandchildren, friends and her husband's grave has become overwhelming. "I'm tired, I really am tired and I'm not young anymore," she said. "Where is the empathy? I've lived here for more than 20 years - I've got friends, I've got family." Eurostat data shows that between 2021 and 2025, 2,490 UK nationals were ordered to leave Sweden, accounting for nearly a third of the more than 7,500 UK nationals ordered to leave across all 27 EU member states during that period. Migrationsverket said it could not discuss Thomas's case without her consent and did not respond to questions about how many British nationals currently face deportation risk. However, the agency told the Guardian last week that 458 British citizens have been deported or forcibly removed from Sweden since Brexit. Last month, another family described to the BBC how their father, who suffers from dementia and vascular parkinsonism and lives in full-time care in Sweden, had also been threatened with removal after more than 20 years in the country. Sweden's Migration Minister, Johan Forssell, said the current legal framework was established under a previous government and that officials would