John Sellers, 34, has been ejected from Sweden, the country where he has resided for 24 years. Having moved to the nation with his family at age 10, Sellers was educated there and is now married to his Swedish partner, Caroline. Despite these deep-rooted ties, he was deported in January following three failed attempts to remain in the country. He is currently fighting to return to Gothenburg, where he had hoped to build a family with his wife.
Reflecting on his ordeal, Sellers stated, “It is time people know how people are being treated here, and it is time to show what Brexit has caused.” He described a near seven-year struggle to remain in the country, adding, “Quite frankly, we have been holding our tongues too long. I am very well aware that different countries have different rules on immigration, but none of this would have happened were it not for Brexit.” Sellers noted that his father died when he was 16, and his mother returned to England after he finished a college course to become a teacher.
“Whenever I come to England, I feel like a tourist. Sweden is my home,” he said.
The emotional and financial toll has been severe. “It is horrible. Not only do I feel like I’ve let down Caroline, I’ve let down my family, let down myself. I’ve been ripped from the love of my life, my other half. The pain is … I wish people wouldn’t have to go through this kind of pain, because you’re not whole. You’re broken.” Hit with the cost of fighting deportation and a lack of work due to his status, he said he does not know how long it will be before he can physically hold his wife in his arms again.
Caroline, who suffers from chronic conditions including fibromyalgia and symptoms of long Covid, such as chronic fatigue, is struggling to return to teaching while dealing with the stress of the case. “It’s just horrible – the feeling of finally having someone to help you with things, someone to lean on and someone who is always there for you and then having to spend so much time, effort and money on fighting the government just to be able to continue that relationship.
There are so many things we want to do. We just want to spend our lives together, and it’s so hard having to fight for that, especially when I am not well to begin with,” she said.
The couple decided to go to the media to show how Sweden’s interpretation of Brexit is “crushing people, crushing families.” The core issue involves the Migration Agency’s refusal to allow late applications from people who were unaware they needed to formally apply to remain post-Brexit—a process used in only 12 other EU countries. Previously, deportation of an EU national to another member state was only permitted in exceptional circumstances involving threats to national security, yet in the post-Brexit scenario, deportations of Britons have been ordered even when no crime is involved.
Sellers had attempted to secure his status by applying for Swedish citizenship in September 2021, before the Brexit deadline of 31 December that year. His application was rejected, and two subsequent attempts to remain under family rights laws were also turned down, with the migration court noting that evidence of a durable relationship was “insufficient.” The couple is now appealing the judgment with fresh evidence. Meanwhile, Sweden’s migration minister, Johan Forssell, is poised to respond to Swedish MP Håkan Svenneling’s demand for a review of the approach to British residents.
Svenneling intervened last month after it emerged that one of his constituents, 78-year-old widow Joyce Thomas, who has lived in the country for 21 years, was told to leave. Thomas has until 7 September to depart, but supporters are pleading with Forssell to freeze removals. Another British citizen, George Mason, who is in full-time dementia care, was told to leave in August but has won a stay of execution until 28 September while authorities consider the “obstacles to enforcement.” Additionally, there is another British man who was detained by police on Tuesday and told he will be deported.
David Milstead, an activist with the Brits in Sweden group, described the Sellers’ case as “yet another example of systemic failings in Sweden’s implementation of the withdrawal agreement.” He noted that a lack of communication to registered British people caused missed deadlines. The UK Foreign Office has expressed concern about Sweden’s approach on multiple occasions, and it is understood that senior officials at the European Commission are also monitoring the situation.
