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Convicted criminals from EU countries may be banned from entering the UK when freedom of movement ends next year.
The new regulations will take effect on January 1 as a component of the government’s call for stricter border restrictions and a “firmer and fairer” immigration formula after the Brexit transition period.
The Home Office said existing EU legislation meant that some foreign criminals could enter the UK, but that adjustments to the law, which will be presented to Parliament, mean that others sentenced to more than a year in criminal offences will not be able to enter. the country.
However, there are doubts about how the history of criminals will be verified if the UK loses to EU criminal databases at the end of the Brexit transition period.
Existing regulations mean that officials will have to demonstrate that EU criminals entering the UK pose a “real, profitable and sufficiently serious threat” to society if they wish to ban their entry and the resolution cannot be based solely on convictions by criminals. , even if they were for murder or rape, the Home Office said.
Adjustments will mean that EU citizens will be subject to the same country access regulations as those already implemented for non-EU citizens, adding tourists and other visitors.
Those who have been sentenced to less than a year for crimes of crime can still be banned, as officials review their criminal history and read if they have links to the UK, such as family members.
Even offenders who have not gone to crime can also be banned if there is evidence that they are “persistent” offenders, crimes that cause “serious harm” or if their “presence in the UK is not conducive to the public”. good. “
People involved in a fictitious marriage may also be simply prohibited, while individuals may be denied access to the border if they violate customs regulations by introducing limited or prohibited products without a license.
Adjustments also mean that EU citizens sleeping on the street can be deported if they refuse, as a component of the government’s long-term action plan, to take other people off the streets.
But it would be a last hotel once the other features have been exhausted and checks are carried out to ensure that those affected are not victims of slavery or trafficking, the authorities said.
The amendments will not apply to EU citizens who have been given prestige on immigration under the EU agreement programme, or to anyone else through the terms of the withdrawal agreement.
But their right to be in the UK could be revoked if they commit crimes after 1 January, the Ministry of the Interior warned.