In his first statement as prime minister, Boris Johnson gave “unequivocally our guarantee to the 3.2 million EU nationals now living and working among us … that, under this government, they will have the absolute certainty for the right to live and remain”. In less than a day, the prime minister’s spokesperson rushed to clarify that this did not mean new legislation would be proposed. Instead Johnson would maintain the EU Settlement Scheme.

As campaigners have pointed out, the current scheme implies that migrants who fail to apply will lose their legal status and residency rights. Figures suggest at least 2 million EU nationals have not applied for settled status yet. In order to be given settled status, migrants have to prove they have lived in the UK for at least five years.

To make matters worse, the Home Office has brought forward the deadline for applications from 30 June 2021 to 31 December 2020. This is the perfect recipe for a repetition of the Windrush generation scandal.

Islamophobic and racist comments by Johnson and his support for leaders such as Viktor Orbán suggest that the likelihood of racist attacks on migrant rights is high, as does Johnson’s commitment to a points-based immigration system.

Legislation should be passed to guarantee the legal status of all EU migrants who live here. At a minimum the government must: scrap the five-year cap – every EU national resident in the UK should preserve all their current rights; re-establish the original deadline advertised by the Home Office to apply for settled status; and provide real guarantees that the situation of EU nationals living in Britain will not be affected in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Diane Abbott MP Shadow home secretary, Alf Dubs Labour, House of Lords, Kevin Courtney General secretary, National Education Union (NEU), Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS, Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett Stand Up To Racism co-convenors, Mohammed Kozbar Finsbury Park Mosque chairperson & Muslim Association of Britain, Rabbi Lee Wax, Kate Osamor MP, Catherine West MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP, Peter Hain Labour, House of Lords, Julie Ward MEP, Claude Moraes MEP, Mike Hedges Welsh assembly member, Shahrar Ali Green party home affairs spokesperson, Unmesh Desai London Assembly, Rokhsana Fiaz Newham mayor, Manuel Cortez TSSA general secretary, Ronnie Draper BFAWU general secretary, Jane Loftus CWU president, Ian Hodson BFAWU president, Maz Saleem Anti-racist campaigner, Salma Yaqoob Campaigner and activist, Gerry Gable Searchlight editor, Julia Bard Jewish Socialist Group, Louise Raw Author

• My Swedish wife of 60 years and I are in a very similar situation to your correspondents (Letters, 3 September) who describe their difficulties in getting settled status. My wife, who had a severe stroke in 1998 with multiple health consequences, is unable to go anywhere – as she would have to – to renew her lapsed passport, and my technological skills, needed to make an application to the Home Office on her behalf, are limited, to put it mildly.

I imagine there could be many elderly EU nationals in the UK who will face similar problems. Couldn’t the Home Office set up a helpline for such people? Much worry and stress could thus be avoided.

Richard Griffiths

Syderstone, Norfolk

• I came to the UK 17 years ago, in 2002, with two children aged eight and nine. They are more British than French, having gone through the British education system from primary school to university. Yet none of them has been granted settled status.

The eldest, in Australia and with another 18 months left travelling, has not been able to apply for settled status and will not meet the deadline of December 2020.

The youngest works in London but has only been granted pre-settled status as he could not provide proof of five years of wages – he is now trying to justify his status with student loan documentation etc.

My husband is British, but that does not come into account. Oh, and the dog will not be able to travel with us unless we plan a very long time in advance. The family is being torn apart.

I ha have always worked and contributed in this country; I volunteer for local associations but now feel like a second-class citizen. As for applying for citizenship, it would have been an option if the cost wasn’t exorbitant and therefore out of reach.

Emanuele Maindron

Ashford, Kent

• I am very sympathetic to EU nationals facing the great and absurd difficulties of obtaining settlement status now. The letters and articles you have published have been very upsetting. Without taking anything away from what EU nationals are suffering, let’s also pay attention to the fact that is not an easy process for any foreign national in this country.

Non-EU nationals have to pay at least £2,389 for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), which is equivalent to settlement. Add to this the visa fees required in the five-year period leading up to ILR, as well as the mandatory extra fee for the NHS – which is double taxation, as we make NHS contributions from our pay cheque already – and over the course of five years a family of four has to pay about £30,000 to live and work in this country. The visas are mandatory, as is obtaining ILR. Otherwise we couldn’t stay here.

The question post-Brexit is whether EU nationals will also have to face the same fee structure that non-EU nationals have been facing recently.

Name and address supplied

• The final letter above was amended on 9 September 2019. An earlier version said “EU nationals pay £65 for settlement”. That was to be the case, but the planned fee was scrapped in January 2019. A letter from Brandon Lewis MP, the Home Office minister, responding to that point and others in the letters above was published on 9 September 2019.