Baldseagull
Well-known member
No, it's not even a possibility. What it is is one of the most inane babblings on Project Fear. No 'agreement' is necessary. Thousands of Brits (and other EU nationals) live and work in countries outside the EU, and thousands more citizens of countries outside the EU live and work in the EU. There are no bi-lateral or multi-national 'agreements' in place to let this happen. They are not needed. And people lived and worked in foreign countries long before the EU even existed (although obviously not too much - international travel wasn't so easy back then.
So please, all you frightened remainers, get this bit of Project Fear propaganda out of your heads. Repatriation of foreign nationals wont even be anywhere near the negotiating table. Won't be discussed. Won't be mooted. Won't happen. Get it?
You might want to argue about what does 'Brexit means Brexit' means - argue all day and al night if you want - but let's get this very clear. Brexit does not mean some sort of ethnic cleansing.
You really think the rights of EU citizens living and working in Britain is not going to change, if we end free movement of people, and that the changes will not require anyone to return to the EU? Or any Brits to return to the UK?
Of course some agreement is needed, if there is no automatic right for EU citizens to come and work in the UK, those already here will either be subject to the same rules and will not be able to work without permit, or have some special status bestowed upon them, likewise for Brits in the EU. I think it unlikely that we will see large scale repatriation, but you really cannot rule it out, as May herself has said.