According to The Guardian, the Portuguese man, who arrived in England in May 2001, is a plumber, has no criminal record and has always paid his taxes.
Domenic Tomeo, 48, owner of the company he has worked for since 2007, described João as “a hard worker, 100% reliable”. “He’s like family to me”, he assured.
João said emotionally that he is “afraid” that the British Home Office will send him “back to Portugal”. “My parents are dead, I have no one there. The UK is my home and my boss is my family,” he explained.
João tried to legalise himself several times but without success
According to The Guardian, it all started in 2019, when João tried to apply for the EUSS (European Union Settlement Scheme), the immigration regime in force for European Union (EU) citizens since Brexit.
He tried to apply both through the Home Office app and the online portal but without success. When he called the helpline, the person who answered him did not understand him “due to a speech impediment and the fact that English is not his first language”.
João then decided to turn to an organisation to help him complete his candidacy and he finally managed to do so in November last year, but it was already past the deadline.
Despite this, having justified his delay and his speech difficulties, the Government rejected his candidacy, considering that there were no “reasonable reasons for the delay in presenting” his application and is now threatening to deport him.
In a letter he received from the British Home Office, there are 11 points describing what could happen to him in the near future, including having to pay a fine and being detained or expelled from the United Kingdom.
João’s lawyer, Naga Kandiah, recalled that his client has paid his taxes for more than two decades and that he has no record, warning of the risk of the United Kingdom facing yet another scandal similar to the Windrush case, when, in 2018, 83 people were wrongly deported from the country.
Despite the rejection of João’s candidacy and not having the right to legal recourse, Naga Kandiah, as well as several civil rights organisations, are exerting pressure to stop the deportation.
The lawyer even filed a lawsuit on the grounds that the rejection of his client’s candidacy “violates the EU withdrawal agreement and incorrectly applies” its guidelines, demanding that the United Kingdom accept João’s request, as well as grant the right of appeal to similar cases.
Human Rights defenders guarantee that João’s case is living proof of the UK government’s growing hostility towards EU citizens.