Shock horror for Brit expats as no-deal means no healthcare

Shock horror for Brit expats as no-deal means no healthcare

Jan 31, 2019 | Articles, News

A no-deal Brexit will rob British expats in EU countries of their rights to free healthcare.

British expatriates living in EU member state, including France, Italy and Spain, will no longer be entitled to free heathcare in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The news is a major blow to retired British citizens living in popular destinations such as the Spanish Costas, France’s Provence region and Italy’s Tuscany. It’s also bad news for the UK’s NHS, now struggling to cope after many of its EU citizen medical staff have opted to return to their home countries. Should a large number of UK pensioners decide to repatriate in order to get free medical treatment, the strain on the NHS could result in its breakdown in many areas.

Freedom of movement campaigner and immigration lawyer Colin Yeo sees the situation as just another example of how British lawmakers in favour of Brexit are playing with expats’ lives in order to gain points in the negotiations. Yeo believes few pundits and politicians even bother to find out how their policies would pan out when real people are involved. The news broke via a no-deal technical notice leaked to the press, which stated S1 certificates would not longer be valid after March 2019.

Full article in Expats blog

The view from Spain: British migrants fear Brexit impact

The view from Spain: British migrants fear Brexit impact

Jan 31, 2019 | Articles, News

Costa del Sol – There are an estimated 1.3 million British expatriates living in the European Union. The greatest number live in Spain. Officially, 310,000 Britons live there, although this figure is believed to be a third of the actual number.

Al Jazeera spoke to British people living in Costa del Sol and in the Valencian Community about their home country’s impending divorce from the EU.

‘My biggest concern is losing freedom of movement’

Molly Williams, 24, volunteer

“My biggest concern around Brexit is losing freedom of movement, which is the right that my family and I have used throughout our lives, as I have lived, travelled, worked and studied across Europe.

Read article in Aljazeera

¿Qué? podcast, episode two: What Brexit means for Brits in Spain

¿Qué? podcast, episode two: What Brexit means for Brits in Spain

Jan 26, 2019 | Articles, News, Radio, Podcasts & TV

So the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. But is it really? Will there be a second referendum? Will it crash out with no deal?

It seems that no one has the answers to those questions right now, something that’s leaving a lot of British residents in Spain, and Spanish residents in the UK, feeling very unsure about their futures.

In this second episode of our new podcast, ¿Qué?, the editor of the EL PAÍS English Edition, Simon Hunter, and his colleague, Melissa Kitson, discuss what Brexit might mean for British and Spanish migrants living in each other’s respective countries, in particular in the light of recent news that Madrid and London have reached a deal over voting rights in future municipal elections.

Full article in El Pais

Brits in Spain more concerned about future after the rejection of Brexit deal prolongs uncertainty

Brits in Spain more concerned about future after the rejection of Brexit deal prolongs uncertainty

Jan 18, 2019 | Articles, News

The latest events in what some are branding the “Brexit pantomime” have done nothing to ease the concerns of the 40,000-plus Brits living on the Costa del Sol.

Tuesday’s historic vote in the UK’s House of Commons, which saw Theresa May’s Brexit deal rejected by a majority of 230 votes, was followed the next day by a narrow victory for her government in a vote of no confidence tabled by Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The 19-vote difference means that Theresa May’s Conservative party was given a mandate by Parliament to continue to negotiate some sort of withdrawal deal.

There has been mixed reaction from groups representing Brits in Malaga province and throughout the Spain.

Speaking to SUR on Wednesday, Anne Hernández, spokesperson for Mijas-based Brexpats in Spain, said this week’s events have been, “more senselessness.” She added that from the beginning the aim of her group, which represents both ‘Remainers’ and ‘Leavers’, has been to ensure that “the UK doesn’t leave without any kind of deal” meaning that the rights of Britons living in the EU are protected. The rejection of May’s deal means that the “anguish” felt by Britons is being extended and that people she talks to are “more worried than ever”.

For Sue Wilson, chair of anti-Brexit group, Bremain in Spain, the collapse of the Withdrawal Deal was as welcome as it was expected. She told SUR in English, “I have found myself in the strange position this week of wanting Theresa May to lose one vote on Tuesday and win another on Wednesday, both of which duly happened.”

Full article in The Sur

Brits in Spain see glimmer of hope in UK Brexit vote drubbing

Brits in Spain see glimmer of hope in UK Brexit vote drubbing

Jan 18, 2019 | Articles, News

Jávea (Spain) (AFP) – On the sun-drenched eastern coast of Spain where British pensioners and business-owners are uncertain for their futures as Brexit ticks closer, the crushing parliamentary defeat of Theresa May’s EU divorce deal has sparked a glimmer of hope.

“This might not happen,” Lyle Starritt told AFP, the day after May suffered a historic drubbing in the House of Commons on Tuesday, when MPs rejected the deal she struck with the European Union.

Britons interviewed by AFP, all of whom were keen on Britain staying in the EU, also said they were confident that even if Brexit takes place Madrid would preserve their rights, providing London reciprocates for Spaniards living in Britain.

Starritt, who runs an estate agency just a stone’s throw away from the wide, palm tree-lined beach in the coastal town of Javea, said that many British expats had been gripped by a “sense of gloom” after the 2016 referendum to leave the bloc.

Spain is the number one destination for British nationals living outside Britain, far ahead of France and Ireland. These include retirees aged over 65 who have made the country their permanent home.

With no deal yet agreed for the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU at the end of March, many expats are concerned about freedom of movement, pensions and healthcare.

But Starritt, 58, said the collapse of May’s deal had given people some confidence that the entire Brexit process could be halted.

Read full article in Yahoo News

2019: The Year We Finally Bury Brexit

2019: The Year We Finally Bury Brexit

Jan 16, 2019 | Articles, News

This trip to BrusselsI’ve always enjoyed celebrating the New Year – a time to reflect on the previous 12 months, good and bad, and to look forward to a new beginning, a fresh start.

A time for optimism and hope, both ingredients that have been difficult to find on the Brexit menu, especially for us Brits living in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK.

Over the last year, so much has changed, with unpredictable events and surprising twists and turns along the way. Deadlines and Cabinet ministers came and went, but despite everything, Prime Minister Theresa May did have one major success. She actually managed to get everyone to agree on something – everyone hates her ‘deal’.

After many months of wrangling, May came back with the best deal possible from the European Union, bearing in mind her self-imposed red lines. Thanks to May’s ridiculous insistence on restricting freedom of movement, she had left no room for manoeuvre. The EU, naturally, stuck together to protect all their members and the integrity of the single market.

Throughout the entire negotiation period, the Conservative party, and the Brexiteers in particular, clung to their fantasy that the UK would be treated exactly the same as we are now. Even the production of the government’s own assessment papers, revealing the damage that even the softest Brexit would cause, barely altered the rhetoric. Britain would be ‘Great’ again, Britain would strike up new trade deals around the world, Britain could stand alone!

Read Sue Wilson’s full article in Impakter