Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old British widow, says the prospect of being removed from Sweden is leaving her unable to sleep or eat as she approaches another deadline to leave the country.
Thomas, a retired nurse, moved to Sweden with her husband 22 years ago. He died of cancer three years ago.
Swedish authorities say she should have submitted a formal residence application under the post-Brexit withdrawal agreement. She was subsequently told that her right to remain was uncertain.
Numerous applications and appeals have been rejected, and Tuesday brought the latest deadline for Thomas to leave Sweden voluntarily.
“This is absolute hell,” she said from her home in Sweden. “I can’t sleep, I can’t eat. You get up in the morning, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
The Swedish migration minister told the BBC that the government would examine whether further measures could ease the impact of Brexit on people affected by the new rules.
When the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020, British citizens ceased to hold EU citizenship. That change meant many had to apply under the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement to retain their Swedish residence status.
A transitional period allowed qualifying British nationals to submit applications, but it ended on 31 December 2021.
Thomas said she and her husband did not realise an application was required. They learned of the obligation when she tried to re-enter Sweden in 2023.
After several years of appeals, Migrationsverket, Sweden’s migration agency, informed her in August that she had until 8 September to depart voluntarily.
Her lawyers are challenging the deportation, but Thomas remains awaiting a government decision.
The possibility of leaving behind her son, grandchildren, close friends and her husband’s grave has left her overwhelmed.
“I’m tired, I really am tired and I’m not young anymore,” she said. “Where is the empathy? I’ve lived here for more than 20 years. I’ve got friends, I’ve got family.”
Eurostat data shows that between 2021 and 2025, Swedish authorities ordered 2,490 UK nationals to leave the country. That represents almost one-third of the more than 7,500 British citizens ordered to leave the EU’s 27 member states during the same period.
Migrationsverket said it could not discuss Thomas’s case without her consent and did not answer questions about how many British nationals face possible deportation.
The agency told the Guardian last week that 458 British citizens had been deported or forcibly removed from Sweden since Brexit.
Another family recently told the BBC that its father, who lives in full-time care in Sweden with dementia and vascular parkinsonism, had also been threatened with removal after spending more than two decades there.
Swedish Minister for Migration Johan Forssell said the current framework was introduced by a previous government and that he would closely review whether additional relief measures are needed.
He did not comment directly on Thomas’s case, but said the government believes the rules should be applied generously.
“The UK is a very important partner for Sweden, and we want British citizens who live and work in Sweden to be able to remain here,” he said.
“We are currently in dialogue with the relevant Swedish authorities to get a clearer picture of what measures may be possible,” he added.
Håkan Svenneling, Thomas’s MP for the opposition Vänsterpartiet, or Left Party, has criticised the government’s migration policy as inhumane.
“That is why I hope Sunday’s election in Sweden will be a turning point where the opposition can form a government and change migration policy so that Joyce and other Britons with strong ties to Sweden can stay here,” he told the BBC.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We welcome the statement from the Swedish authorities that they will look at this issue. We are ready to support them in doing so.”
