Post Brexit rules have meant that 74 year old Kathleen Poole, an Alzheimer’s patient in a care home who moved to Sweden 18 years ago, will be deported due to an expired passport.
Originally published in a previous article HERE, the updated situation is that Swedish police are moving ahead with the plan to deport the elderly lady. Family of Kathleen had hoped politicians would step in after media coverage of this ‘deeply shocking’ case. But on Friday the family were told by the British embassy in Stockholm that the police had been in touch, “pressing” the Embassy to find a care home in the UK.
Kathleen moved to Sweden from Macclesfield 18 years ago to be close to her son Wayne and his Swedish wife, Angelica, and their four children. But 11 years ago, she developed dementia and has been in a care home near her family for the past 10 years. She is now so incapacitated she cannot feed herself or go to the bathroom unaided.
An application made on her behalf by her family has been rejected because she does not have an up-to-date passport or financial statements to demonstrate her right to be in the country post-Brexit.
The family told the authorities they did not have an updated passport because their mother is bedridden and does not travel.
Read more in the original article in The Guardian HERE.
This is a harsh reminder to all expats in Europe that it is important to keep your passport up to date, and that a plan is put in place to ensure that a competent 'representative', be that a friend, family member or other, is responsible for maintaining your documents in case you experience serious illness.
Written by Lisa O'Carroll - Brexit correspondent, The Guardian
Photograph - Angelica Poole
