New EUSS Digital Status report from Public Law Project

Public Law Project have released a new report on the use of the digital immigration status. The Author’s of the report, Dr Joe Tomlinson and (our own research fellow) Alice Welsh say that relying on online status alone in the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is risky and call on the Home Office not to rule out bringing in a paper-based back-up.

The report warns that millions of EU citizens with settled status may face discrimination and other problems when looking for jobs and somewhere to live from June 2021 as they will have no physical or paper-based proof of their right to work and live in the UK.

In particular, the report highlights key issues and presumptions with the policy justifications of introducing digital status including the risk of discrimination, digital exclusion and to security.

Dr Joe Tomlinson said: “The roll out of digital status is happening in the wake of a scandal where migrants of the Windrush generation were systematically denied rights and, in many cases, wrongly removed from the UK due to the Home Office’s failure to recognise their status.

“The Home Office faces acute challenges in establishing public confidence in its new role as guardian of digital status due to persistent concerns about the accuracy of its records, a lack of institutional responsiveness to individual circumstances, and general procedural issues such as delay.”

Find out more and read the report on Public Law Project’s website.