At least thirty citizens of the European Union, including Italians, Germans, Greeks, Romanians and Spaniards, especially young people, were blocked at the border in Great Britain and held in removal centers after trying to enter the country perhaps to work , without a visa or residence. This was announced by the news site Politico citing diplomatic sources. Europeans were held in the centers for up to seven days before being forced to repatriate, a very long period also attributable to the difficulty in finding a flight back to their country due to the covid epidemic but which a diplomat defined as “disproportionate”. The UK Interior Ministry has not yet disclosed how many Europeans have been held in the centers since January 1st. The embassies of European countries have offered legal advice and intervened to try to reduce detention, but not all Europeans stranded have turned to diplomatic offices. Many of the young people arrested were trying to enter Britain to work as au pairs in families or look for ‘low-skilled’ jobs for a short period of time.After Brexit, European citizens can only enter the UK for work with a visa or framework of the EU Settlement Scheme which concerns those who lived in the country before Brexit. Otherwise, Europeans can enter for tourism and stay for 90 days maximum. But the border police retain the right to push back Europeans if there are reasonable doubts as to their intention to work during their stay.
