The latest data from the Home Office is out and it's not good news. it would take 47 years to register the 3 million EU citizens at the current rate and 30% of the current applications for Permanent Residency are rejected. I've written to the Home Secretary to ask her to remove the threat of deportation without notice and give us today guarantees that all EU citizens living legally in the UK will be able to exercise their right to remain before the UK leaves the EU. You can see the letter below.

The data in details:

Number of applications by EU citizens in Q3 2016: 16,009 (55% up from 10,269 in Q2 2016)

Number of rejections: 4,728 (up 60% from 2,962 in Q2 2016)

(30% rejection rate

The letter to the Home Secretary.

Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP Home Secretary

Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF

Bristol 1 December 2016

Dear Ms Rudd,

I am writing to you as the chair of the EU citizens’ rights group the3million following today’s publication of the latest Immigration statistics quarterly release.

This is the first set of data since the referendum and shows a significant rise in applications made by EU citizens for permanent residence cards and a worrying increase in rejections of these applications by the Home Office.

The number of applications for permanent residence card by EU citizens jumped from 10,269 in Q2 2016 to 16,009 in Q3 2016.

In that same period, the number of rejected applications increased by 60% to reach 4,728 last quarter.

In addition to this, the Guardian reported of a backlog of nearly 100,000 applications back in June, which adds to the worry that the Home Office is not coping with the volume of applications by EU citizens.

While numbers have risen to an all-time high, the figures clearly show the current system will not be able to register the 3 million EU citizens currently living in the UK and therefore to support their right to remain. Based on the latest data it would take 47 years for the Home Office to register all EU citizens currently living in the UK, even in the event that no rejection happened.

More alarming is the rise in rejections: at 30% many EU citizens are not able to prove their right of residence despite residing here legally, which leaves them potentially at risk of deportation from the day the UK leaves the EU.

According to calculations made by the3million, up to 1 million EU citizens in this country could be at risk of deportation from the day the UK leaves the EU in 2019.

EU citizens have been feeling very anxious about their future since the referendum and this set of data will not reassure them.

We call on you to remove the threat of deportation without notice and give us today guarantees that all EU citizens living legally in the UK will be able to exercise their right to remain before the UK leaves the EU.

We are people with families, children, friends and work colleagues and we are rightly worried about a very uncertain future.

Yours sincerely,

Nicolas Hatton

Chair of the3million



