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The summary of the main points of the meeting was agreed via email with the Home Office and was due to be released publicly on Monday as part of the3million’s efforts to keep up the pressure on the government as it enters the fourth round of Brexit talks in Brussels this week.
It read: “The Home Office has confirmed ... its position that EU citizens will not have to have comprehensive sickness insurance [private health insurance], will not have to meet an income threshold, will not have to submit fingerprints; will not be issued with an ID card.”
They were told this was the Home Office position on EU citizens already in the UK and not post-Brexit migrants.
However, the3million, which has previously written to the European commission to say it does not trust the Home Office with EU citizens’ futures, remains sceptical.
While they see it as a “great news” for people like students and stay-at-home parents who previously required CSI [comprehensive sickness insurance], they say they are “reserving judgment” on any future system.
The Home Office has indicated to the3million that the new registration system would result in a “digital” document and not a card to be carried around.
It has also pointed to agreement with the EU Brexit negotiators in the August round of talks that fingerprints would not be used for ID.
“The fact is that they will probably need de facto ID cards to prove that they were existing residents rather than new entrants, because it looks like new entrants will have to register,” said immigration barrister Colin Yeo.
Nicolas Hatton, the chairman of the3million said it found it difficult to believe government promises given the “confusion at the top” over post-Brexit rights. [...]