There is anger about the case of Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old retired nurse who has lived in Sweden for 21 years. Her husband died there; her son, grandchildren and home are there. Yet she has been told to leave because her post-Brexit residence application was late. Her case is appalling and predictable – but far from isolated.

The Guardian has also reported on the plight of Horace Mason, 74, who faces being deported after a court ruling, despite having lived in Sweden for 25 years. This is sad but not surprising.

When Sweden set out its plans in 2020, we at the Brits in Sweden campaign warned in an official submission that the application scheme could strip vulnerable people of their rights if they missed the deadline. We urged a flexible and generous approach, and later raised concerns about outreach and refusals with the UK government and European Commission. We have watched Britons fall off that cliff edge since 2021; only occasionally does a case reach the media.

The new scheme gave British residents safeguards under free-movement law – including assistance, reasonable grounds for lateness and proportionality – that were untested.

We were not alone. The Swedish Bar Association said the new rules must be applied generously to both evidence and deadlines, to which the government insisted that the authorities already had sufficient flexibility.

The truth of the........

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