British Man With Dementia Faces Deportation From Sweden Over Post-Brexit Rules After Living There 25 Years

A 74-year-old British man with advanced dementia has been given until 20 August to leave Sweden, despite living there for 25 years and requiring round-the-clock residential care.

Horace Mason, known as George, moved from Hinckley, Leicestershire, to Sweden around 2000 to be close to his son, Carl, and his grandchildren. Now, his family is fighting to keep him in the country he has called home for a quarter of a century.

Sweden's Migration Court of Appeal ruled that 'the state's interest in regulated immigration outweighs Horace Mason's interest in continuing to reside' in Sweden, triggering a furious response from his family.

Deportation Deadline Looms

Carl was told by the British Embassy that Swedish authorities had given his father until 20 August to leave. Mason has advanced vascular dementia and vascular parkinsonism, is immobile and needs help with virtually every aspect of daily life. He lives in full-time residential dementia care in Sweden.

His family says he cannot simply travel to Britain and start a new life independently, making the order to leave Sweden far more complicated than an ordinary immigration case.

Court Weighs Immigration Rules Against Mason's Circumstances

The legal battle began in December 2021, when Mason's family applied for permanent residence status under the post-Brexit arrangements. Sweden's Migration Agency rejected the application, saying he had not provided documents proving he met the requirements for a right of residence.

After subsequent attempts to secure his right to remain failed, the family took the case to the Migration Court of Appeal under Chapter 5, Section 6 of Sweden's Aliens Act, which allows residence permits to be granted in certain cases involving 'particularly distressing circumstances'.

The family submitted new medical evidence detailing Mason's need for continuous supervision and round-the-clock care. They also argued that requiring him to leave Sweden would interfere with his private and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

On 23 July, the court ruled that the decision requiring Mason to leave Sweden could stand. It found that dementia care was available in Britain and noted that Mason has a daughter there. But after weighing his private life and long-standing ties to Sweden against the state's immigration interests, the court concluded that requiring him to leave was proportionate

'Are They Going To Arrest Me?'

The court's legal reasoning has a starkly different meaning for a man struggling with advanced dementia. Carl said the family had tried to shield his father from as much information as possible because his illness left him confused and worried.

But after being told about the decision, Mason began asking what would happen to him, whether police would come to take him away and whether they would 'kick the door down'. He also asked where he would go in England and whether he would be arrested and put in prison.

'It's inhumane,' Carl said.

Britain Is Not a Simple Solution

One crucial detail complicates the court's assessment that care is available in Britain. Although the court heard that Mason has a daughter in Britain, private medical evidence indicated that she could not provide the level of care Carl currently provides.

For his family, the fact that dementia services exist in Britain does not mean Mason can realistically relocate there. He is immobile, requires constant supervision and depends on a carefully established care arrangement. That is why Carl has questioned how requiring his father to leave Sweden would benefit anyone.

A Wider Post-Brexit Dispute

Mason's case also raises broader questions about how Sweden handles British citizens whose lives were established there before Brexit.

It follows the case of Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old British widow who has lived in Sweden for 21 years and is also facing removal after authorities rejected her late application for post-Brexit residence status. The situation echoes that of Kathleen Poole, another British woman with dementia who was threatened with deportation from Sweden before dying in a care home two years ago.

Campaigners say Sweden has taken an unusually hard line. Figures from the European Commission's reporting on implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement show that 3,918 of 14,233 applications made in Sweden by the end of 2024 had been refused—27.5%—compared with an EU average of about 3% to 4%.

David Milstead of British in Sweden has criticised Sweden's approach to the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement as highly restrictive, arguing that its consequences have upended the lives of long-term British residents.

The Fight Moves to Strasbourg

The British government says it is supporting Mason and his family and remains in contact with Swedish authorities. For now, though, the deadline remains.

Carl is seeking to take his father's case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in an attempt to prevent his removal. After 25 years in Sweden, an elderly British man with advanced dementia and a need for round-the-clock care is being told he must leave.

The case has become a striking test of what post-Brexit immigration rules mean when they collide with a person's health, family life and decades-long ties to the country they call home.