Swedish police are pressing ahead with plans to deport an elderly British woman with Alzheimer’s who cannot walk or talk. Kathleen Poole, a 74-year-old widow, 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 and 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.
They had hoped politicians would step in to stop the deportation last month after the case received international press attention and after campaigners at British in Europe pointed out that the EU went to great lengths to ensure guarantees for all citizens affected through no fault of their own by the UK’s referendum result, with the then Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, declaring in 2017 that “Brexit should not alter the nature of people’s daily lives”.
But on Friday the family were told by the British embassy in Stockholm that the police had been in touch “pressing” it to find a care home in the UK.
“It is impossible to say how long it will take but when we have found a care home willing to receive your mum, the police will give us a travel date and we will have to issue an emergency passport,” an official at the embassy told the Pooles.
Benn, the former chair of the now defunct Brexit select committee, said: “This is deeply shocking. What on earth do the Swedish authorities think they are doing? The EU Commission must intervene to stop this from happening.”
Angelica said she did not understand why the police were being so “harsh” as the family had recently had contact with immigration authorities who were looking for a medical certificate for Kathleen, giving them hope her case would be reviewed.
“I could not say I am hopeful now because it is the authorities and the police,” she said.
