The cases of Horace 'George' Mason, who has been issued a deportation order despite requiring 24-hour care in a dementia home, and Joyce Thomas, who has been issued a deportation order at 78 years old, have received heavy coverage in the British and international media. The cases have renewed scrutiny over the high rejection rate for post-Brexit residency in Sweden, which is many times higher than that of any other EU country.
"It's just not right that someone who is in need of care for dementia or is extremely old and has been living for a very long time in Sweden should be deported," Hirvonen told The Local in an interview.
"Our previously proposed clause – that was valid until 2023 – stated that when there are 'particularly distressing circumstances' and a person has been established in Sweden and had a residence permit previously, you can be granted a residence permit on those grounds."
"I think that that solution, or something like it, needs to be put into place, and that would concern not only British citizens but also other people in cases where it's totally unreasonable to kick them out of Sweden."
Migration Agency press chief Jesper Tengroth previously told The Local that the current, stricter safety clause – 'exceptionally distressing circumstances', which the current government voted through with the support of the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats in 2023, does not cover situations such as those of Mason and Thomas.
"It's not enough to be seriously ill, you need to be close to death and the care you need cannot be found in your homeland," he said. "We can agree, I think, that the care you can get in Sweden is also available in Great Britain."
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Hirvonen's intervention follows a written question submitted to the parliament by the Left Party MP Håkan Svenneling, asking Migration Minister Johan Forssell to say what he intended to do about the deportation of elderly British citizens.
Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell promised to look at the issue and see what the government could do to "ease the processes", in a statement to the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
While Hirvonen said she saw no obstacle in Swedish law to passing a dedicated amnesty for British people who could show they were living in Sweden before the UK left the European Union, she said she would prefer a solution that applied more broadly.
"I'm sure it's possible to make a special solution just for Brexit cases, but in my opinion, it's crucial that we make changes for people of all nationalities who find themselves in these unreasonable situations where you've been established in Sweden for a really long time," she said.
"At the moment we have a system in the migration law that will create unreasonable cases just repeatedly," she added. "What they have in common is the fact that people have been living for a really long time in Sweden. They're well established here. Sweden is the country that they have the strongest relationship to, and they're still being kicked out for making small administrative mistakes."
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She said that the government's solution to the teen deportation issue, changing the maximum age at which children could receive permits as a dependent from 18 to 21, had only delayed the deportations of these young people.
"Even if they also make it possible for these young people to apply for work permits from Sweden, they still need to have a salary of 34,000 kronor a month, which is extremely rare for any 21-year-old to have (...) or they need to pay for their education as if they were from a non-EU country. So there are many things that need to be corrected after we change the government."
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