British Widow, 78, Told to Leave Sweden under Brexit Rules after Living There for 21 Years

THE GUARDIAN: Authorities say application to stay was made too late, as UK officials say Sweden takes ‘stricter approach’ than other EU countries

This screenshot has been taken from this Guardian article. | Joyce Thomas, 78, is now taking the case to a higher court. Photograph: Helena Karlsson/NWT
A 78-year-old British widow who has lived in Sweden for 21 years is fighting deportation from the country after authorities told her a post-Brexit application to stay had been submitted too late.

Her case is the latest of 2,500 British people ordered to leave the country after Brexit in what campaigners and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have said is an inexplicably hardline approach taken by the Swedish authorities. It comes two years after Sweden threatened to deport a British woman with dementia in a care home shortly before she died.

Joyce Thomas, a retired nurse, was given just four weeks to leave Sweden in November, three years after her husband had died, causing huge distress.

After being widowed, Thomas downsized with her dog to an apartment in Hammarö, which is close to her son and grandchildren, and to her husband’s grave.

She said she sometimes felt overwhelmed by the distress of what was happening. » | Lisa O’Carroll | Monday, August 10, 2026

Good God! How bloody cruel can anyone be? To throw out of the country a respectable, elderly lady is an absolute disgrace. Fie on the Swedes! — © Mark Alexander