Criminals From EU To Face Tougher Measures In UK Post-Brexit - Home Office

Criminals From EU to Face Tougher Measures in UK Post-Brexit - Home Office

The UK Home Office announced on Thursday that it would implement tougher border rules from next year, when the United Kingdom would definitely leave the European Union, to prevent EU nationals with criminal records from entering the country

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) The UK Home Office announced on Thursday that it would implement tougher border rules from next year, when the United Kingdom would definitely leave the European Union, to prevent EU nationals with criminal records from entering the country.

"Currently, under EU law, the UK has to allow some EU criminals into the country who would otherwise have been stopped and turned away. Under the changes, foreign criminals sentenced to more than a year in jail will be banned from entering the UK," the government said in a statement.

The changes to the current law were laid out in Parliament on Thursday and will come into force on January 1, 2021, when the 11-month transition period agreed between London and Brussels after the UK left the bloc on January 31 ends.

"For too long, EU rules have forced us to allow dangerous foreign criminals, who abuse our values and threaten our way of life, onto our streets. The UK will be safer thanks to firmer and fairer border controls where foreign criminals regardless of nationality will be subject to the same criminality rules," Home Secretary Priti Patel said, as quoted in the official statement.

Patel recalled that under current EU rules, her ministry needs to prove that EU criminals present "a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat" to the UK in order to restrict their free movement rights across the EU member countries.

The new rules will not apply to EU citizens protected by the Withdrawal Agreement, such as those with status under the EU Settlement Scheme, but if an individual under this status commits a crime in the UK or overseas after they come into force next year, his or her status could be revoked.