Two Polish citizens who have lived in the UK for nearly 80 years after their parents fled World War II have spoken of their terrifying experience after being told they did not have post-Brexit rights to return to the UK. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

In May, while visiting Poland, Maria Krupa, 85, and her husband Czeslaw, 92, learned that although they had been welcomed as refugees after the war, they now needed special post-Brexit paperwork to return to their home in Bury.

Czeslaw, who came from Lviv (then part of Poland), and Maria, who left her hometown in what is now Belarus as an infant, met in the UK, married, and settled in Bury, Greater Manchester. They were issued with "aliens' registration cards" and had traveled extensively as adults without anyone asking for their immigration status.

In May, they traveled to Poland to meet surviving family members. But Ryanair refused to let them board their return flight because they had neither proof of the right to live in the UK nor the new electronic travel authorization (ETA) required for foreign tourists entering the UK.

"It was a big shock," said Maria. "We were very disappointed and a bit upset because my husband takes a lot of medicine because of a stroke to his spinal cord."

They arrived in Southampton in 1947 and 1948 as young dependents of displaced Polish service members who had been evacuated from their homes in 1940 and later became part of Gen. Władysław Anders' Polish army. This army played a key role in defeating the Third Reich.

"We tried to explain to Ryanair that our fathers fought for Poland and England in the war, but they refused to let us on the plane because they said they would have to pay a big fine," said Maria.

They are speaking out to help others who might be in the same position. "It was a big, big shock because we never heard of this and we never thought for one minute that after nearly 80 years someone would tell us we couldn't go home," said Maria.

Kate Smart, CEO of Settled, who helped the Krupas, said the charity was seeing "thousands of cases" like theirs. "It is a really common occurrence, almost on a daily basis," she said.

The EU settlement scheme was launched in 2019 to give EU citizens living in the UK the documentary evidence needed to travel as they had under pre-Brexit free-movement rules.

Many of the people seen by Settled are elderly people with British children and grandchildren. "They have nobody in their family circle who thinks like immigrants so they don't talk about things like 'settled status'," said Smart.

Maria said she had never thought to get a British passport as she had never needed it in the previous 80 years. "It was really important. I didn't think of it as weakening my identity. I love England. I'm very grateful to England for taking so many people after the war. But I thought it was important that we stay Polish," she said.

After being forced to leave the airport late on a Sunday night in May, they returned the next day with an ETA but had to pose as tourists, claiming they lived in Poland as the online form would not accept their British address.

"When we arrived in England we were terrified. We had to be careful about what we said. We were terrified because they started asking questions and we thought we are not going to lie again and have to tell the truth," said Maria.

After going to Citizens Advice in Bury, they were connected with Settled. Smart commended the Home Office resolution centre for its swift action after the charity submitted a no-time-limit application that resulted in settled status for the Krupas last week.

She appealed to the government to take note of the issues with the EU settlement scheme, arguing "a process should have kicked in at the airport" when an issue such as this one arose.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.