Britons' lives in Portugal 'paralysed' by failure of post-Brexit ID cards rollout
Britons living in Portugal are complaining of being deprived of access to basic rights such as healthcare, employment and social security because they have not been issued with post-Brexit residency cards.
Some have been blocked at airports as they attempt to travel to other EU countries, being told at the border that their documents are not in order.
"We are in desperate straits," Tig James, co-president of the British in Portugal campaign group, told Euronews. "It has paralysed and damaged UK nationals' lives emotionally, physically and financially."
James cites cases of British workers unable to sign work contracts, with some having job offers retracted, because of the lack of residency documentation — "most notably, five EasyJet pilots who had moved to Portugal, with their families, solely for that purpose".
"Two people were recently detained in Germany because of out-of-date residency documentation," she added. They had to buy alternative return tickets back to Portugal via another route outside the EU, at a cost of some €5,000.
The couple have employed a German immigration lawyer and are hoping for a court hearing. "They have done everything legally," James says.
Like British nationals living elsewhere in the European Union, the tens of thousands living in Portugal were guaranteed residency and associated rights under the Brexit divorce treaty.
As long as they had moved to the country before the new rules took effect in 2021, the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement (WA) protects rights such as residency, housing, employment, health care and social security, for them and their family members.
The new rules covering travel state that UK nationals with residence rights in an EU country "do not need a visa to enter their country of
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