A 78-year-old British woman faces deportation from Sweden after failing to meet deadlines set by new immigration rules following Brexit, according to reports. Joyce Thomas has lived in Sweden for over two decades and now finds herself in a legal battle against authorities who have denied her request to remain in the country despite her long-term residence and family ties. She is one of approximately 2,500 British citizens ordered to leave Sweden under the terms of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Thomas, a retired nurse, was given just four weeks to leave the country in November, three years after her husband’s death. She moved into a smaller apartment in Halmstad to be closer to her son, grandchildren, and her late husband's grave. She described feeling completely broken by the situation, emphasizing that she had done nothing wrong and had no criminal record or traffic violations. “It’s unbelievable that I’m being asked to leave this country after living here so long,” she said. “I’ve never caused any trouble.” Her husband, Gwynne, died of cancer in 2023. Thomas claims he would have submitted the necessary application for continued stay had he known it was required. Despite the withdrawal agreement allowing late applications, her request was rejected in 2024. Authorities deemed her reasons insufficient, and subsequent appeals were also denied. With the help of free legal aid, she is now appealing to a higher court. British officials have expressed concern over the case. Peter Kyle, a former government minister, called the situation deeply troubling and urged Sweden to reconsider Thomas’s circumstances, including her long-term residency, family connections, and humanitarian factors. The UK Foreign Office has also raised concerns about Sweden’s strict stance toward British citizens who have been living there since before Brexit. Sweden has the highest rate of deportations among EU countries related to Brexit, with 2,500 British nationals receiving orders to leave since 2021, accounting for a third of all such cases in the EU. According to European Commission data, nearly 4,000 of the 14,200 applications for residency status were rejected in Sweden. In comparison, Bulgaria rejected only five applicants out of around 16,000, while Belgium rejected 605 out of 13,000. Meanwhile, in Croatia, a 38-year-old Pakistani national named Mohamad Sh. has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for sexually assaulting and detaining a Nepalese woman for nearly 20 hours in a house near Zagreb. The incident occurred in June last year when Sh., who claimed to be illiterate and working in construction, lured the woman under the pretense of helping her find work. He took her to a restaurant for a job interview and then brought her back to his unregistered accommodation. When the woman wanted to leave, he locked the door, hid the key, and sexually assaulted her. The victim managed to send a message to a friend using her mobile phone, alerting a local NGO director and a Nepalese influencer. Police arrived at the address shortly afterward. Sh. attempted to escape through a window but was quickly caught. Several used condoms were found at the scene. At trial, Sh. denied the charges, claiming he was fleeing because he did not have documents other than an asylum seeker’s ID card. He argued that people who felt threatened by his assistance in finding employment had reported him to the police. However, the court dismissed his defense as unreliable and inconsistent. It was also discovered that Sh. had deleted messages containing the victim’s location from her phone. Sh. had previously been convicted in 2020 for sexual assault in the asylum center in Porin. After serving his sentence in Glina in July 2024, he was placed in a detention and deportation center in Ježevica. He applied for asylum again, which was denied, but due to procedural delays, he remained in Porin. His appeal against the rejection was upheld by the competent court, but he exploited the system to avoid deportation and committed another crime. If the High Criminal Court confirms the new conviction, Sh. could remain in prison until the end of 2031. The court emphasized the severity of the attack, noting the intensity of force used, the violation of the victim’s dignity and integrity, and his prior conviction for the same offense. The court ruled that no mitigating circumstances existed in his favor.
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