No clear answers about Brexit yet for Norwegians in Britain

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May.Photo(Christopher Furlong/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Norwegian Embassy in London has received many inquiries from Norwegians wondering what Brexit will mean for them. To date, the Embassy has no clear answers.

Presently, there is uncertainty throughout Europe about what may happen when Britain leaves the EU. An estimated three million EU citizens reside in the United Kingdom, and one million British nationals live outside Britain in other EU countries, and none of them can be sure what rights they will or will not have on the day that Brexit becomes a legal fact.

The Swedish Embassy in London received so many questions from Swedes in the UK that it has established a special ‘task force’ to deal with the flood of inquiries. There are around 100,000 Swedes living in the UK.

But the confusion has also affected approximately 20,000 Norwegians living there.

‘The Norwegian Embassy in London has received very many requests for information from Norwegians in the UK about how to deal with Brexit, and the future status of EEA citizens living in the UK,’ said Communications Adviser, Ane Lunde, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

‘Currently, we don’t know what consequences Britain’s EU exit will have for EU and EEA citizens and companies, and therefore we can provide few concrete answers,’ she said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Norway’s London embassy has been bulked up with two extra employees because of the large workload Brexit has brought with it. The Norwegian government has also established a working group for Brexit in Oslo, in which several ministries are involved.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today