The UK's Guardian newspaper has in recent weeks publicised the imminent deportations of Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old former nurse, and Horace "George" Mason, a 74-year.old man living in a dementia home in Skövde, putting the issue of post-Brexit deportations back on the agenda.
In the question, submitted to the parliament on August 18th and passed to Forssell on the 19th, the Left Party MP Håkan Svenneling asked Forssell if he intended to take any action to help these people and other British citizens in a similar situation.
"I would like to ask Migration Minister Johan Forssell: 'Is the minister prepared to take any initiative to stop the deportations of elderly people who have lived in Sweden for a long time?'" he wrote.
Under Swedish parliamentary rules, Forssell has two weeks to answer the question, meaning he must respond by September 2nd.
In his letter, Svenneling noted that the Sweden had rejected a considerably larger share of British citizens who applied for post-Brexit residency than any other EU country, a result he argues is not in the spirit of the UK Withdrawal Agreement.
"For UK citizens who were already legally resident in an EU country, the premise of the Withdrawal Agreement was that their existing residence rights would continue to apply and that they would essentially be able to live, work and live there as before," he wrote.
"Sweden’s application procedure would ensure and protect these continued rights. It was not intended to result in older people who had lived in Sweden for decades losing their right to stay due to a missed deadline or shortcomings in an application."
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