Sickening! MY RIGHT TO STAY!

Expat goes on hunger strike after residency application is rejected due to Brexit withdrawal nightmare

A BRITISH man has gone on hunger strike over his ‘right to residency’ in Spain. Mark Saxby is protesting the authorities’ refusal to grant him a resident’s permit because he did not have private medical insurance by the Brexit

Will it rain on the parade?

By Alex Trelinski

deadline.

Expat Saxby, who lives in Safor, near Valencia, has vowed to only drink water until the situation is resolved.

The 55-year-old teacher, from Birmingham, is now entering his fourth day without food. He moved to the Valencia region at the beginning of 2020 with plans to work as an English language teacher, but returned to the UK just as the pandemic struck.

Once travel restrictions eased in the autumn that year he returned to Spain with an intention to become a resident.

Deadline

However continual delays in getting appointments resulted in his application only being sent in December - weeks before the Brexit Day deadline of January 1, 2021. His application was eventually denied over the lack of private medical insurance, which Mark told the Olive Press could easily have been remedied without the delays. “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, this week.

“We were promised a threemonth period to deal with any problems which would have identified the insurance issue, but as everything ended up being submitted in December 2020, I was left with no time to do anything about it,” he added.

After Brexit Day and being told of his rejection, he immediately acquired the right medical insurance and informed the authorities.

“If this stipulation had been clearly flagged up in the initial application process it would have saved me a lot of time and bother,” he commented. He also argued that the Withdrawal Agreement made clear that the host state would help any applicants correct mistakes in their application. It added that any such errors or omissions could not be used as an excuse to deny residence.

Mark immediately appealed to Valencian immigration authorities but was refused and although the Ombudsman took up his case, the answer ended up the same.

He then appealed to the European Commission which agreed Spain may have misapplied the regulations in the Withdrawal Agreement. But unfortunately it added it could not intervene in any specific case.

Mark is now worried about leaving the country in case he is fined on his return for not having a residencia or even denied entry.

Madness

“It’s madness really. I normally work around the world on short-term contracts, earning money that I then spend back home, effectively bringing money into Valencia,” he said.

“But right now I cannot travel so I cannot work and am surviving on my savings.”

As a final throw of the dice, he launched a hunger strike on Monday where he will only drink water until his situation is resolved.

“This is not something I am doing for a day or two to get some publicity, but to get action, as my life is in limbo as I cannot do anything,” declared Mark.

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