Eva Martín's adventure as an au pair in the United Kingdom ended one day after her arrival at London Stansted Airport on November 12, 2024. "At first, I was going to spend a month with the family, just to try it out." She says there weren't supposed to be any problems, since Brexit, European Union citizens can stay in the United Kingdom as tourists for up to six months. But Eva didn't come to London for tourism, but to take care of some children.
Behind the combination of circumstances that lead to European migrants being detained or returned from the United Kingdom is the lack of information among many citizens or a failure to understand that there is no longer freedom of movement between EU and UK citizens, according to various organisations working with migrants in the country. Added to this is the potential role played by the misinformation circulating in certain countries social media groups or advice given by people without training in migration.
“How can I go to work in the UK?” is the most frequently asked question to Sylvia Ordás, president of the Coalition of Spanish in the UK, an association that provides support to Spanish residents in the United Kingdom, and a volunteer for Settled, aimed at supporting EU citizens. “But there are many others that begin with 'I've been told, someone recommended me...'. The lack of information (and also misinformation) is still very widespread, even though so many years have passed since Brexit,” Ordás tells Maldita.es.
Being an immigrant in the UK after Brexit
This article is part of an international investigation conducted by Maldita.es (Spain) and Funky Citizens (Romania). The project explores, in four articles, the difficulties experienced by immigrants in the United Kingdom after Brexit, both those who already lived there and those who arrived later, especially those from EU countries, with a special focus on Spanish and Romanians.
Thanks to the collaboration of different organisations working to help and provide support to immigrants, and based on the multiple testimonies of those interviewed for this investigation, we have compiled a radiography of the United Kingdom's immigration system after Brexit came into effect.
This investigation was supported by Journalismfund Europe.
Request immigration status from the Settlement Scheme from EU citizens arriving in the UK after the established deadline: the case of Alexandru Costea
Due to ignorance, having received misinformation or just trying to get their luck, many EU citizens end up being detained in the UK or returned to their countries, due to having problems with their immigration status. Since January 1, 2021, there is no longer free movement between citizens of the European Union and the United Kingdom. This is the effect of Brexit, in whose referendum, held in June 2016, won to leave the European Union.
The president of the Coalition of Spanish in the United Kingdom, who has been living in the country for almost 30 years, has frequently seen applications for pre-settled status in recent years, having arrived in the country after the deadline set by the British Government to do so: December 31, 2020.
“From 2021 to 2023, there were people who came to live here, submitted applications to the immigration system, and obtained a certificate of having done so, which was valid while their application was being processed,” Ordás says. Meanwhile, she says, “they lived and worked, even though they knew it wasn't the right thing to do if they had arrived in the country after December 31, 2020, and that their applications would likely end up being rejected”.
This is the case of Alexandru Costea, fictitious name, a bricklayer from Romania who arrived in the UK in 2022 and ended up in a immigration removal center in this country. On one occasion, while returning from a trip to his home country, he was detained at Luton Airport, near London. He spent a night in detention at the same airport and was sent back to Romania.
He attempted to enter the country a few days later. This time by another route he considered easier: he booked a flight to Belfast (Northern Ireland). Upon arrival, he intended to reach England by ferry but was stopped and detained again. However, he was not returned to his country of origin, as he had been the previous time, but was instead sent to the short-term holding facility in Manchester.
These are centers for detaining international passengers while immigration authorities decide what to do with them. Unlike immigration detention centers, where entry is known but exit is unknown, as there is no detention limit, these centers do have a maximum stay of up to one week, according to law. They may then be removed from the UK, released, or transferred to an immigration detention center where unlimited stays are permitted.
This is what they did with him. From Manchester they sent him to Colnbrook, an immigration detention center near London Heathrow Airport, where he spent a week before being finally released. This is the fourth center to receive the most immigrants in 2024, according to data published by the Home Office.
According to Andreea Dumitrache, CEO of the3million, “[Costea] was not in the UK illegally before the denial of his immigration status,” which he received a week after leaving the detention center. She says that as soon as someone receives a denial, they can file an appeal, which also guarantees those rights: “It seems obvious that they were going to deny it, but also that it should have been faster.”
This NGO was founded in the United Kingdom after the Brexit referendum. in 2016, to protect the rights of European Union citizens. Its name, "Three Million," refers to the estimated number of European citizens thought to be living in the United Kingdom at the time of Brexit and who should have applied for the EU Settlement Scheme. They later realized there were many more. They estimate around five million. "It's a good metaphor for how Brexit was handled in the United Kingdom and a reminder that the Government never monitored how many people were in the country at the time," she says.
Misinformation and bad advice can also be perjudicial
Andreea Dumitrache also talks about how misinformation and poor advice can lead many immigrants, like Alexandru Costea, to end up in one of these centers.
She explains that over the years, there have been people who weren't qualified to advise on immigration issues. "They announced that people could come to the UK, apply for EU Settlement Scheme status , and enjoy all the rights" (work, residency, or public healthcare) while the Home Office processed it and gave them a response. All of this was outside the established deadline, as they had to be living in the UK before the end of 2020. However, she states, "those people who agreed to do so could ultimately be detained or deported due to poor advice," says the CEO of the3million.
From August 2023 it's not possible to apply for immigration status and live and work in the UK while the decision is being made. Dumitrache explains that the Home Office has implemented a new step: "They first review the reasons for a person applying for immigration status late (since the deadline was June 30, 2021) and decide if it's sufficient. In that case, they classify it as a valid application, and the person receives an application certificate and the associated rights." This makes it difficult for people who have lived in the UK for a long time and may not have realized they needed to apply, Dumitrache adds.
For Noelia Martínez, CEO of the Scottish immigrant rights organisation Citizens Rights Project, it is also a danger to choose to obtain information on social networks, such as Facebook groups, where he has seen how users could end up confusing others with recommendations on how to carry out certain immigration procedures.
An example of such a post is one made by a user in a private Facebook group with more than 17,000 members: “My partner and I have received the news that our pre-settled status has been extended until 2030. A question: Many people tell us that even though the validity period is until 2030, since we have been out of the country for more than 6 months, it will not be valid… (specifically, we have been out for 4 years).” In response, some users told her: “As long as you have pre-settled status , you can come to work and reside until it expires.”
But that's not the case, as Martínez explains. "If you have pre-settled status as of May 21, 2024, the date set by the British Home Office, if you have been outside the UK for more than two consecutive years, your pre-settled status, the temporary residence permit, is lost.”
It's true, Martínez indicates, that "the Home Office has not provided information on how it will implement this" and that this person may still see the pre-settled status when they access the app to view their digital status. However, she warns that "it may happen that at border control they see a four-year absence" and not allow them to enter, or, if they do, when they are looking for work or going to the doctor, they notice this four-year absence, which could lead to more serious consequences, such as expulsion from the country.
Eva Martín, a young woman from Zaragoza, in Spain, who wanted to improve her English while working as an au pair in London, also received poor advice. She trusted the judgment of the host family. "They told me they'd had other au pairs like me recently and that there were no problems." However, she ended up detained for eight hours at Stansted Airport. She was finally released but Border police took her passport and asked her to return to the airport the next day to send her back to Spain. And so it turned out.
Eva believes that the fact that she didn't have a return ticket, despite planning to return to Spain a month and a half later to spend Christmas at home, is what set off the alarm bells. Furthermore, since she didn't have a visa, she could only travel to the United Kingdom as a tourist, not as an au pair. The British Home Office makes this clear on its website. that “an au pair should not be hired if they are in the country on a visitor visa or if they are visiting the UK for six months or less,” which was Eva’s case.
It also explains who can work as an au pair in the UK: be from the UK or Ireland, be from an EU country and have settled or pre-settled immigration status or are eligible to do so, for example, be an immediate family member of someone who has it or have a Youth Mobility Scheme visa, only suitable for a few nationalities.
Information and legal and NGO assistance can be a lifeline, according to various organisations working with migrants
In a room filled with clear plastic boxes containing clothing that will be sent to the Yarl's Wood detainees, we are greeted by Sam Price, CEO of Beyond Detention. This organisation, located in Bedford, about 45 minutes by train from London, organises a care session three days a week for the people detained there. They talk to them, help them fill out asylum applications, listen to them or play cards. They also provide them with prepaid cards so that they can communicate with their families, as their mobile phones are confiscated when they enter the centre, offering them a basic one, without cameras or apps that allow them to record or access social networks. They even have support and accompaniment programmes once they leave the centre.
“We used to supply them with clothing too,” Price adds, “which is why you see so many boxes here, but then we discovered that was Serco’s responsibility.” This, along with Mitie, are the two private companies that manage the seven Immigration Removal Centers (IRC) currently in operation in the United Kingdom. “UK Home Office staff will go to a nail salon, or a restaurant, or a car wash, for example, and detain someone,” she adds, “and send them to an immigration center, but they only have the clothes they’re wearing at the time .” For Price, it’s a matter of “dignity” to be able to change their clothes.
One aspect that can work against detainees, according to the CEO of Beyond Detention, is "the lack of legal advice that people in immigration detention centers generally receive," which she describes as "poor quality," and she sees "little progress in the case" on many occasions. "We saw this last year with the Rwanda Plan" a pact signed in 2022 between the then British Government and the Rwandan Government.
The aim of which was to outsource the management of some asylum seekers from the United Kingdom by sending them to Rwanda to process their applications for international protection, without being able to return to the United Kingdom.It was finally repealed when the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, came to power in July 2024. “There were people who had been with the same lawyer for two years, without making any progress on their asylum case,” Sam Price says.
Immigrants in UK detention centres have the right to access free legal advice if they qualify for legal aid,” explains Human Rights lawyer and director of the law firm Lawmanity, Jen Ang.“These requirements are a merit test and a financial eligibility test, which means, according to Ang, that “they must demonstrate that they have so little savings and income that they cannot be required to pay for legal counsel themselves, and that they must also need help with a type of legal problem for which legal assistance is available.”
However, she adds, "there is a shortage of legal aid lawyers in the UK, so even if a detainee is eligible for legal aid, they may have difficulty finding a lawyer to handle their case." Organisations such as Bail for Immigration Detainees (BiD), that provides free legal assistance to detained immigrants, has also warned about the low level of legal representation and access to justice.
Andreea Dumitrache, CEO of the3million, believes that “it all comes down to seeing how the people who are already the most marginalised suffer the worst consequences, and how in those moments, being able to access certain privileges” such as hiring a lawyer, can change their path.
Alexandru Costea was able to access the legal privileges mentioned by Price and Dumitrache through hard work and savings. “Everyone at the center advised me to hire a lawyer because people were staying there for at least four or five months,” he says. The lawyer contacted the UK Home Office, “sent my documents, and they released me until an official decision was made on my residency application.” Many people can't afford a lawyer; it's very expensive," Costea concludes.
The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is a settlement program for EU citizens who were living in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020. It is part of the Withdrawal Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, and is intended to guarantee residency and acquired rights for these citizens. The deadline to apply was June 30, 2021, although there are some cases in which a late application can be submitted. For example, immediate family members of people who resided in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020, who wish to reside in the country.
Depending on the length of time a person has been residing in the country, a different immigration status is available:
Pre-settled: for those who have lived in the United Kingdom for less than five years.
Settled: for citizens who have lived in the country for more than five years. It is an indefinite residence permit, although it can be lost if the person spends more than five consecutive years outside the United Kingdom.
According to data from the British Home Office, since its launch on August 28, 2018, and until December 31, 2024, the scheme has received 8.4 million applications, corresponding to 6.3 million people. In total, 5.7 million have been granted (4.1 million with indefinite or settled immigration status and 1.7 million with temporary or pre-settled status).
From January 1, 2021, any EU citizen wishing to live and/or work in the United Kingdom must apply for a visa from their home country. There are different types of visas: work, study, or family, among others. Some visas, such as work visas, require sponsorship licenses approved by the British Home Office.
*The EUSS applies to citizens of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. For citizens of Ireland it is voluntary.
2024 saw the highest number of detentions of EU citizens in the UK since Brexit, with more than 50% of all those refused entry at the border 
