Thread by @Michaelacbenson

I've been looking a little more into the data behind this article this AM and want to focus on the need to look at the disaggregated figures - WHICH #EUcitizens are being turned away at the UK's borders is the question we should be asking #THREAD 1/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…

Looking at the passenger refusal data for Q1 2021 and sorting to look exclusively at EU citizens, this is the picture broken down by nationality 2/ assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Guessing everyone can see #Romania there in the top spot? And by a loooooong way. Across this dataset for Q1 2021 it is unusual for any country to have numbers of refusals in triple figures—only Bulgaria (199), Poland (140), Eritrea (125) and Iraq (107) are in this category 3/

While over the past few months, there has been some publicity around the numbers of EU citizens denied entry and detained at the border. Notably these have not been the stories of the Romanian or Central and Eastern European citizens 4/

You may remember stories like this focused on the experience of a #German citizen at the #UKborder 5/ theguardian.com/politics/2021/…

Or this, #EUCitizens denied entry when travelling to the UK for job interviews (which is permitted btw) 6/ theguardian.com/politics/2021/…

Or this of the inhumane conditions faced by #EUcitizens detained at the border - in this case one of the 26 Italians initially denied entry 7/
theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/m…

These cases signal grounds for concern about the heavy handedness of the UK’s border controls and how this is extending into the lives of a greater number of #EUcitizens 8/

But we also need to think about why these are the cases that make the headlines and NOT those of the Central and Eastern European populations for whom crossing the border into the UK—both before and after Brexit—has not been a frictionless experience 9/

And this is where it is worth comparing data on refusals from YE March 2020 and YE March 2021. What this shows is that of all nationalities, #Romanians have held the top spot for refusals in both years, the numbers rising over the last year 10/
gov.uk/government/sta…

Also worth noting the rise in the number #Bulgarians and #Polish citizens denied entry 11/

Even before Brexit and the end of the transition period and despite their EU citizenship, they made up a disproportionate number of people turned away at Britain’s ports of entry. This data makes clear is the discrimination these individuals are facing at the UK's borders 12/

To be clear, before the end of last year these EU citizens were entitled to #FOM into the UK. It was NOT standard procedure for EU citizens to be questioned at the border for their rights to entry. To see the numbers refused even before the UK ended #FOM should raise eyebrows 13/

I know I am not the first person to draw attention to this, but while it is important to recognise what #Brexit means for #EUcitizens coming to the #UK, we do need to pay attention to who is disproportionately impacted 14/

Europe is uneven and unequal as @SocialLore @franklyMrS explain so clearly 15/ blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/11…

Nationality is only one dimension of this of course. To my mind, we need to turn our attention to how these new statistics on refusals sit within a longer context of discrimination experienced by those from the A2 and A8 16/16

Should also say - this is the juxtasposed controls - the arrangement between Belgium, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for border controls on cross-Channel routes. But when we look at UK ports #Romania and #Bulgaria still at the top 2b/

#UPDATE - I followed up this #THREAD in more detail with this #newblog for @ukandeu ⬇️⬇️⬇️ ukandeu.ac.uk/which-eu-citiz…