Forced to eat!

Worrying warning signs lead Brit to stop hunger strike over Spanish residency refusal after 11 days

A DIZZY spell on a staircase has forced a British man to end his hunger strike over a Spanish residency row.

Mark Saxby was advised to stop his protest on medical grounds after just a week and a half.

The 55-year-old, from Safor, near Valencia, took the extreme action after being refused residency despite submitting all the correct paperwork.

In just 11 days he shed an alarming eight kilos from a starting point of 80 kilos.

“I was really running out of energy and on day 12 I nearly fainted and fell down my stairs,” he told the

By Alex Trelinski

Olive Press

“It was a definite sign that I needed to stop and, in any case, the authorities are seemingly uninterested.

“Do I need to make myself seriously unwell to get any official response? Making myself ill was not the ultimate goal!”

Saxby, an English teacher by trade, was devastated when the Spanish authorities rejected his residency application, as we reported in our last issue.

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He was particularly angry as he had submitted it before ‘Brexit Day’, January 1, 2021, but was denied residency as he didn’t have private medical insurance, which he immediately acquired. Despite appeals to the European Commission and the Ombudsman for help, he has still been unsuccessful. His residency battle revolved around delays caused by the pandemic which cut down any time to rectify the health insur- ance omission.

“There were difficulties accessing websites to log in my details and then I kept being referred to different offices for appointments across the Valencia region due to Covid delays,” he explained.

Insurance

“On top of that under the withdrawal agreement, we were promised a three-month period to deal with any problems which would have identified the insurance issue,” he added. The hunger strike was a last throw of the dice, but not surprisingly health issues started to kick in, before anyone in power took any interest.

He began eating again, little by little, and is hoping not to have suffered any long-term health problems.

He is now being forced to return to the UK to prevent being arrested and extradited.

As a non-resident, non-EU passport holder he must adhere to the ‘90 days stay within 180 days’ rule. The Valencian authorities have not replied to questions from the Olive Press

“I really appreciate you covering this on your front page and I am still hopeful someone upstairs will take note,” he concluded.

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