A Briton living in Denmark is being deported from the country because he arrived four days late with an application to stay there after Brexit.
Danish MP Mads Fuglede is fighting to stop the deportation, which he says is a violation of the spirit of the withdrawal agreement to protect the rights of EU citizens. However, after last week’s election and with no new government in sight in Copenhagen, he is worried that help will not arrive in time for Philip Russell.
The 47-year-old financial services manager received his first deportation order in May and was devastated to hear it because he arrived four days late with new residency paperwork and didn’t realize that needed after Brexit.
He was sure someone would see that this was a minor mistake, but on Monday he received the big news that his deportation appeal had failed and he had to leave the country, his job and his fiancee.
“You must leave Denmark no later than one month from today’s date, i.e. no later than December 6, 2022. As a result of our decision, you also no longer have the right to work in Denmark without work permit We will therefore inform your employer about our decision,” they said.
“I feel completely devastated. I’ve already been through 11 months of hell, with no end in sight other than being deported, so this means I’m going to lose my job, my house, my girlfriend, being thrown into London,” Russell said.
He believes this punishment for being late with an application is completely disproportionate to the alleged crime, but is now fighting against time to overturn the deportation order.
Fuglede, who has been handling her case, said she had written to the former home secretary to ask for a change in the law to allow late applications to be considered as they are in the UK.
“I know he missed the deadline, but we have to look at it politically and make sure there is room for Philip and others like him. That was not what was meant when we passed the law. The spirit of the withdrawal agreement was to ensure that all UK citizens in Denmark had an easy path to stay.
“There are probably others going through similar agony, which is not what we intended,” he said.
He wrote to Kaare Dybvad, the former immigration minister, about Russell’s case but had not heard back by last week’s election and says it could be weeks or months before a new government is formed.
“Philip will need the help of a lawyer, which is a lot of money. In a perfect world, there should be a delay in decisions on late applicants,” Fuglede added.
Russell’s fiancé, Frederikke, said he was ashamed that his country had behaved this way. “I’m in a bit of shock, it’s my worst nightmare come true. I’m still devastated.
“I feel hopeless and helpless. I think we’re fighting a system that doesn’t want to help. They’ve made the rules really tough. I mean, deporting someone for being four days late with an application they never told us we had to do? I have to admit that I am very ashamed of my country, all EU member states, for treating citizens like this,” he said.
Frederikke, who suffers from clinical depression and anxiety, said the past year has been so stressful that she has been forced to quit her job to deal with the confusion.
Russell said that not only does he have to be with her because they love each other and have planned a future together, but he is her main support through her illnesses.
“I’m very much in shock because we made sure we did all the things we were required to do to make sure Philip could live and work here,” she said.
“We even went to their offices to have a meeting, to ask them ‘is everything in order, do we need to do anything else?’ and they told us ‘no, everything was fine’ and we trusted the authority,” he said.
Russell moved to Denmark to be with his girlfriend in October 2020, three months before the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.
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Denmark was one of several countries to extend the deadline for EU citizens to apply for residency after Brexit by a year, but Russell says he has not been notified that anything should be done despite several communications with him since 2020.
The first Philip and Frederikke heard about the Danish residency plan after Brexit was when he applied for a job on 4 January 2022 and his potential employer asked to see his national residence card.
“I said ‘what the hell are you talking about?’ and they said, “Oh, you should have applied four days ago.”
“Then I started frantically searching various online forums and websites and learned that the Danish authorities must have written to me at least twice, maybe three times last year asking me to apply for a residence permit” , he said.
Siri, the Danish immigration authority, said it could not comment on a specific case.
But Siri said he and other government agencies and private organizations had launched information campaigns with “extensive information about the consequences of Brexit and guidance on how to implement it”.
Siri said it had sent three information letters to around 19,000 resident British citizens and their families, and had set up a Brexit hotline for questions and had records of 290 late requests.
It added that it would “assess all the circumstances and reasons” that someone has applied late and would process the application if there were “reasonable reasons” for not meeting the December 31 deadline.
In assessing a late application, “SIRI will also take into account the applicant’s personal circumstances and links to Denmark, for example length of stay, links to the labor market and impact on the applicant’s immediate family,” he said.
It added that its decisions are subject to review by an independent appeals board and that advice was available to unsuccessful applicants on how to make a complaint.
A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office said it was in contact with a UK national in Denmark about his residence status, but offered little comment beyond the rules as outlined in Siri’s statement.