The effects of Brexit They get her into big trouble immigrant In Great Britain. The fall of a is symbolic Italian restaurateur Massimo, who traced his odyssey to the Guardian: the most important critical issue? The Freezing bank accounts happened out of the blue. After fifteen years of “normality”, our fellow citizen, along with his British wife Dee, had their bank account frozen overnight. Hence a thought from the association the3million: freezing funds would be part of a strategy designed to intimidate foreign citizens and persuade them to leave the country.
Massimo and Dee are among the thousands of European citizens who have found their Permanent Residence (PR) cards invalidated by Brexit: despite having paid taxes in the UK for 21 years, they have no right of residence without these documents Country. The Union the3million – which brings together European citizens residing in the UK – fears the worst is yet to come, given the government's “shameful” move to make it harder for people like the Italian restaurateur to gain EU citizenship status. Group CEO Andreea Dumitrache stressed that before Brexit, European citizens were guaranteed their right of residence under the legally binding agreement signed between the parties.
Massimo noticed something strange when a supplier told him that an invoice had not been paid. The entrepreneur and his wife had just moved from Kent to Belfast to set up shop and had decided to close their “English” business account with Santander to open a new one with a Northern Irish address. Within weeks, they were locked out of the new account. “We had to close our business because we couldn't pay our suppliers and we had just opened the restaurant. “We were expanding our business and no one from the bank was available to us,” says Dee.
The freezing was related to Massimo's obligation to apply for permanent residence: “I never thought something like this could happen […] AND as if I had been rejected by a country I have lived in for more than 20 years and I didn't do anything wrong. And one day they will just say hello to me, no explanation, nothing. It was terrible. I think about how many people in this country are like me and are no longer welcome in this country.
In an attempt to free up funds for the company, the couple decided to remove Massimo as the company's director from the official register of the UK's Companies House. The bank account has been unblocked, while the Italian's personal account remains unavailable. Everything is there for lawyers and industry experts “Hostile Environment” policy. introduced by former Prime Minister Theresa May. Dee didn't mince his words: “There are probably a lot of people in this situation and it's scary. This is how people become homeless, this is the most terrible thing: one minute your bank account is open and you're living your life and the next minute… That's why we want to share our story. The disgusting thing is that bureaucracy and bad laws are responsible for this.”