Sweden has confirmed that 458 British citizens have been deported or forcibly removed from the country since Brexit after failing to secure the required post-Brexit residency status.
The figure, made public for the first time, has renewed criticism of Sweden’s handling of British citizens who had established their lives in the country before the UK left the European Union.
Some affected Britons have lived in Sweden for decades, while cases have included elderly and vulnerable residents. One British man was deported despite having lived in Sweden since he was 10 years old.
Susanna Fonsell, a unit manager and legal expert at the Swedish Migration Agency, told Sveriges Radio that rejection of a residency application did not automatically result in deportation.
“A rejected application does not necessarily result in deportation… and according to the agency statistics, the agency’s rejections of an application for resident status has been accomplished by a deportation decision in only approximately 400 cases,” she said.
The Swedish Migration Agency, known as Migrationsverket, later confirmed the higher figure of 458 deportations to the Guardian.
“According to the agency’s statistics, the Swedish Migration Agency’s rejection of an application for residence status has been accompanied by a deportation decision in only 458 cases,” a spokesperson said.
David Milstead, who leads the 9,000-member activist group Brits in Sweden, called for Sweden to publish more detailed information about the removals and the circumstances surrounding them.
“We need to understand exactly what the 458 represents. Does it capture people who gave up and left when they realised their withdrawal agreement application was unlikely to succeed? Does it include people who were refused withdrawal agreement status, subsequently obtained a permit under national law and were only later ordered to leave?
“It certainly does not capture people who are currently managing to remain in Sweden on temporary permits, with little certainty about their long-term future.”
Milstead said the figures reflected what he described as a wider problem with the way information about the cases had been released.
“We still do not have basic published figures showing how many people submitted a missed-deadline application and the fraction of these which succeeded,” he said.
Data available up to 2024 showed that 14,233 applications for post-Brexit residency had been submitted, including applications from family members who joined British citizens after the deadline.
Almost 4,000 applications were rejected, according to analysis by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The rejection rate was reportedly three times higher than that recorded in any other EU member state and significantly above the EU average of between 3% and 4%.
The removals have continued, with another case emerging this week involving the Swedish wife of a former business director from Cambridge. She said her husband was detained in Stockholm on Tuesday ahead of a forced deportation after the couple had spent five years challenging the migration authorities’ decision.
She said they felt they had been “hunted”.
Earlier, the case of 34-year-old John Sellers drew attention after he was deported from Sweden despite having lived there since he was 10. His removal separated him from his wife, Caroline, in Gothenburg, who said the public needed to understand how Brexit had “crushed families”.
Another case involves 78-year-old British widow Joyce Thomas, who has been ordered to leave Sweden. Her friends are seeking an injunction and have appealed to the European Commission for assistance.
Failure to leave could result in forced deportation. A court of appeal has also warned that Thomas could face a “re-entry ban” and be “registered on a watchlist”, potentially preventing her from entering Sweden or another Schengen country for the duration of the ban.
The Swedish Migration Agency rejected suggestions that it had taken an unusually harsh interpretation of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
It told the Guardian it had “no indication that Sweden has in any way interpreted the withdrawal agreement in an extreme manner or differently from other member states. The Swedish Migration Agency has applied applicable law, and there has been an opportunity to appeal rejection decisions.”
Under the Withdrawal Agreement, late applications for post-Brexit residency are permitted in both the EU and UK, provided applicants can demonstrate “reasonable grounds” for missing the original deadline.
However, the FCDO has said that “in practice” British citizens submitting late applications in Sweden “are not likely to have their reasonable grounds accepted”.
Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell said earlier this week that the government had followed the rules but was prepared to examine whether changes could be made.
“The relationship with the UK is very important to Sweden and the government will continue to safeguard the correct implementation of the withdrawal agreement. As part of this, the government is investigating whether further measures can be taken to facilitate the process in the future,” he said.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “We continue to raise this with the Swedish authorities and welcome their statement that they will look at this issue. We are ready to support them in doing so.”
Niels Paarup-Petersen, migration spokesperson for Sweden’s opposition Centre Party, said the government should take further action.
He pledged that his party would introduce legislation allowing British citizens to reapply for post-Brexit residency if it came to power at the next general election, arguing that “a touch of humanity” was necessary.
