Goans who have acquired Portuguese nationality and are living in the United Kingdom will have felt some relief following the UK parliamentary report that warned the British government against plans to deport EU nationals residing in the kingdom. For the approximately 25,000 Goans with Portuguese nationality, who since the BREXIT vote of June 23 this year have been living in uncertainty of their future in the UK, this could be the best news they could get. That, however, is not the end of their troubles. This is just a recommendation and it comes after purely looking at the legality aspect, precisely the potential for litigation in the UK.
The report states, “The UK government could not deport the large numbers of EU nationals currently in the UK. In the unlikely and unwelcome event that the government sought to deport EU nationals, there could be the potential for significant, expensive and lengthy litigation, leading to considerable legal uncertainty for a prolonged period of time. These cases would have the potential to clog up and overwhelm the court system.”
Even before the BREXIT vote was taken, when it was just announced that Britain would be voting to decide whether to stay in the EU or exit it, there were already fears of what would be the fate of the thousands of Goans living in the UK, who had gone there via the Portuguese route. It was a justified fear as they were living there only because the United Kingdom was a member of the European Union. Once UK left the membership of the EU, the EU nationals living there could not be guaranteed the rights they enjoyed earlier as UK would no longer be bound by the agreement with the European Union.
If there is safety in numbers, than the Goan community with Portuguese nationality living in the UK could take solace that they are not the only ones, but any decision that the UK takes on EU nationals will include all the other EU nationals living there. For, it is not just the 25,000 Goans that are of concern to the British lawmakers, but the approximately 2.9 million EU nationals that are currently estimated to be living in the UK. It is all these that will be affected by any decision that the British government takes.
It is almost six months since the vote and any decision taken and its implementation is going to be a long process. The committee has called on the British government to lay out a detailed list of fundamental rights that are currently guaranteed to all such people by virtue of the UK’s EU membership and what approach it intends to take towards them now that the British people have voted to exit the union.
While they face an uncertain future in the UK, Goans who have opted for Portuguese nationality do have the option of finding a new home for themselves in any of the other European countries, including Portugal, that are part of the EU. They will be guaranteed the same rights they had as EU nationals in the UK, but will not have the perks that the British government offers by virtue of it being a welfare state. But if there is a move at further migration they wouldn’t be the only ones, as the million other EU nationals in the UK would also consider the same. Numbers, in this case, would not be result in safety but lead to competition in the job market.
Migration would always be a difficult decision. For the Goans in the UK, BREXIT has made it far more complicated. They went to the UK with the nationality of a European country that they acquired because their land was once the colony of a European nation. They now face an uncertain future.
