Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden.
asserted
director → double → Sweden
Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end.
asserted
Brexit → march → end
An only child with no children and no property in the UK, Charles has effectively been made homeless.
asserted
Charles → make → UK
He was last in the UK in 2022 for one week, and before that not since 2017 when he emigrated.
asserted
he → emigrate → 2017
“I have nothing, nothing in the UK at all,” says Charles as he shows a text from the British consulate explaining where in Heathrow the suddenly homeless can get help.
asserted
homeless → have → help
“All I want is to return to my wife, my home and my friends in Sweden and to live a quiet, peaceful life,” adds Charles, who does not want to publicly share his full identity.
asserted
who → want → identity
His forced flight on Tuesday shows that deportations of British citizens who lived in Sweden before Brexit are continuing.
asserted
who → force → Brexit
Stockholm has already deported 458 British people after rejected residency applications, a higher proportion in terms of its population than any EU member state.
asserted
Stockholm → deport → state
The situation persists despite promises from opposition parties now on track to form a government that they will introduce urgent laws to give Britons a second chance to apply for residency.
asserted
they → persist → residency
“I’ve done nothing wrong but feel I’ve been treated like a criminal,” Charles says.
asserted
Charles → do → criminal
“Since arriving in Sweden nearly nine years ago, I’ve done everything I can to integrate myself into Swedish society.
asserted
I → arrive → society
I’ve learned some basic Swedish, contributed to Swedish society and the Swedish economy, and for that, I’m being punished.
asserted
I → learn → that
Why are they doing this to good, honest, hard-working people like me and my wife?”
asserted
they → do → me
Shortly after disembarking in London, he is sitting down in an airport cafe processing what has just happened.
asserted
what → disembark → cafe
Pointing to a small holdall and a large reusable shopping bag, he says: “All I have is what my wife packed in my bag here with clothes and my little bag” in which he has belongings handed back to him by the captain as he got off the plane.
asserted
he → point → plane
The bag includes a plastic envelope sealed and emblazoned with the words Kriminalvården, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, containing meagre belongings.
asserted
bag → include → belongings
In it is a miniature tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and earplugs given to him in the detention centre where he was locked up for two weeks.
asserted
he → give → weeks
There is also a bright yellow envelope handed to him by the captain before disembarking which he opens for the first time.
asserted
he → be → time
One is a police document saying he does not need to be “escorted”.
asserted
he → say → ?
The other says he is being deported over a failed residency application under the Aliens Act – his latest legal attempt to stay in Sweden after a pre-Brexit residency application, made on time, was rejected.
asserted
application → say → time
Charles’s plight started just over two weeks ago when he and his wife received a text requesting that they come to their local police station to discuss their migration case.
asserted
they → start → case
They thought it was to discuss their five-year battle to persuade authorities they were in the country lawfully before Brexit.
asserted
they → think → Brexit
But he was immediately detained and told he would be deported.
asserted
he → detain → ?
This is not about leaving Sweden, this is about me being forced to leave my wife and my house.
asserted
me → leave → wife
They are separating me from my wife,” he said.
asserted
he → separate → wife
“They said we think that if we don’t detain you you will abscond from Sweden because you are not co-operating.
asserted
you → say → Sweden
“For the last nine years, all we’ve done is cooperate with them.”
asserted
we → do → them
He said he begged authorities not to detain him, telling them he would go of his own accord but they said no.
asserted
they → say → accord
He asked if he could drive back to the UK “so at least I could take some belongings with me because I have nothing in the UK, and they said ‘no, the decision has been made’”.
uncertain
decision → ask → UK
Before Brexit, British citizens could live, work, study or retire in any other member state.
uncertain
citizens → live → state
Under EU law deportation was reserved for exceptional cases of criminality such as terrorism.
asserted
deportation → reserve → terrorism
After Brexit, Britons and EU citizens who had exercised those free movement rights were told their rights to remain in their host country would be guaranteed in the legally binding withdrawal agreement.
asserted
rights → exercise → agreement
Campaign group British in Europe has raised concerns about the hardline treatment in Sweden for years but this summer it became an election issue after a series of controversial cases emerged, including a removal order issued to a 78-year-old British widow, Joyce Thomas, who had been in the country for 21 years.
asserted
who → raise → years
A 74-year-old British man with dementia in full-time care was also ordered to leave after 25 years while another British man, 34, in the country since he was 10 years old, was deported in January.
asserted
he → order → January
The cases raised questions about whether Sweden’s hardline immigration position had infected decision-making relating to Britons there before Brexit, a cohort with special protection.
asserted
position → raise → protection
Charles says the experience has been humiliating, particularly as he spent a career in public service helping prisoners and unemployed people to start up businesses.
asserted
prisoners → say → businesses
“When I first moved to Sweden, I thought it was a wonderful place to live.
asserted
it → move → Sweden
Forests, nature, the people that I met when I first moved there were all generally very nice people.
asserted
I → meet → that
That did change,” he
asserted
That → change → ?
“Only two friends know what’s happened in the last couple of weeks.
asserted
what → know → weeks
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
