Section:GDN 1N PaGe:25 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 20:07 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Friday 30 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
National^25
Tearful woman pleads
to stay in UK on live TV
Aamna Mohdin
A Portuguese woman who has lived in
the UK for 20 years has interrupted a
live Sky News broadcast to criticise the
running of the EU settlement scheme
and speak of her fear of being deported
after 31 October.
The woman’s impassioned plea
came amid growing concerns that the
government scheme, which allows EU
citizens to apply for settled status in
the UK, could become “another Win-
drush scandal”.
About 1 million EU nationals resi-
dent in the UK have applied for settled
status, but at least a further 2.6 mil-
lion have yet to apply, while there
have been concerns over complica-
tions with the application process,
such as the impossibility of accessing
the online form via iPhone. EU citizens
in the UK contacted the Guardian in
droves last week to demand clarifi ca-
tion of their status as no-deal looms.
The Conservative MEP Daniel Han-
nan, who supported leave in the EU
referendum, called on the home sec-
ret ary to sort out the issues with the
scheme, warning the government
could end up with another Windrush.
The Portuguese woman who inter-
rupted the broadcast spoke of having
no voice in Brexit despite living in the
country for 20 years, and said the “set-
tlement scheme is not working”.
The woman, who did not give her
name, said: “I work and I gave this
country my youth. I’m very grateful
for what you taught me but you must
make me part of all this process. I can’t
just be kicked out. I build things for
you, I’ve looked after your children.
I’ve looked after the elderly in this
country. Now you kick me out with
what? With what?”
She pointed at the Houses of Parlia-
ment behind her and said: “I am very,
very hurt by what they’ve done to Eng-
land because I came here and I joined
the working force and I’m very proud
of it, and I’m very angry at them for
doing this to this country.”
She added she had problems with
her form because her “national insur-
ance didn’t correspond to the right
thing” and said she was being forced to
restart the entire process. “But the 31st
of October is fast approaching. What
am I going to do? How am I going to
stay? What are my rights? I’m in the
dark, like many, many people.”
Axel Antoni, a spokesman for
The3million, said: “Our view of the set-
tlement scheme hasn’t really changed.
We’ve known from the beginning there
would be issues with people proving
their status. We sent over 150 ques-
tions to the Home Offi ce when it was
originally planned and we never
received any answers. What were see-
ing now is what we expected to see.”
Antoni added it was not enough to
just tweak the scheme. “The answer
to this is not changing the process, it’s
about actually honouring the refer-
endum process of making the settled
status automatic.
“The government could immedi-
ately solve the problem by securing
our rights in law, which was promised
in the referendum campaign and Boris
Johnson’s maiden speech. It would
stop all these issues, including the
likening to Windrush, by making the
process about registration.”▲The Portuguese woman interrupt ed a live TV broadcast PHOTOGRAPH: SKY NEWS
Germany will
make it easier
for diaspora
to regain
citizenship
Kate Connolly
BerlinThe German government has said it
will ease the process for descendants
of people persecuted by the Nazis to
regain German citizenship, following
a campaign by a group based in Britain.
The interior minister, Horst
Seehofer ,said yesterday he had issued
a decree that would overturn the rejec-
tions of those previously considered
ineligible – most commonly descend-
ants of women who were forced toemigrate from Nazi Germany and lost
their citizenship after marrying non-
German men.
Hundreds of descendants in such
cases, many of whom had applied
for German citizenship following the
Brexit referendum in 2016, had their
claims rejected. The y will now be
approved, Seehofer said.
Between 2016 and 2018, more than
17,000 Britons applied for German cit-
izenship, compared with fewer than
5,000 in the 15 years before.
“Germany must face up to its his-
torical responsibility towards thosewho, as the descendants of German
citizens who were persecuted by the
Nazis, have faced legal obstacles to
citizenship, especially those whose
parents or grandparents were forced
to fl ee abroad,” Seehofer said.
According to Germany’s constitu-
tion the descendants of Jews or otherswho faced religious or political per-
secution have the right to have their
German citizenship reinstated.
A campaign group called the Article
116 Exclusions Group was established
in the UK in December, taking its name
from the article of law that provides for
the restoration of citizenship.
Nicholas Courtman , a member of
the group whose own application
for citizenship was turned down ,
acknowledged that Brexit had brought
the group together. “But it’s wrong to
reduce this to a Brexit issue alone. It
is so much more than that,” he said.17,000
Number of Britons who applied for
German citizenship in the two years
following the referendum in 2016RELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws