Stingychips

maybe Brits just went home for better wages when covid struck.

DaveLovesDee

Sure, let me Google that to see if any Brits gave that as a reason....


Nope, couldn't find anything.

Stingychips

what about Brits who has business that rely on tourism?. What was the furlough from the Spanish government to British expats? It seemed to take ages for Brits having to wait for their vaccines in Spain. Loads of reasons to go back
to the UK.

Expatrick

Including syntax?

DaveLovesDee

Yeah, UK criminals used to flee to Spain to avoid the UK Police before Brexit. And now Brits are going back the other way before Spanish Police and immigration catch up with them.

There were plenty of threads on various BE country forums last year asking how to stay longer than 3 months without applying for the relevant visa.

bobd22

Wheres a link or something that evidences that ? Brits along with other nationalities resident and on the Spanish medical system were called forward for vaccines at same time as Spanish citizens. I even know resident foreigners with private health care who told how to obtain the vaccine free of charge under Spanish medical system and they got it quickly. Vaccines were admittedly not in place in Spain as quick as UK but when rolled out everyone got called forward.

Rosemary

Brits legally registered in Spain and in the health system do not have problems gaining vaccines.

Rosemary

Lou71

Nope, sorry to burst your bubble but I can't think of a single reason to return to the UK.

My partner and I are resident in Portugal (we split our time between Spain and Portugal) but our local vaccination centre in Spain were happy to give us the booster last week when our age group became eligible. They were fully aware that we are resident in Portugal and had the first two doses there - we have private health insurance in Spain but that didn't matter on this occasion. Great vaccination facility, very professional and people were able to turn up without an appointment.

So we had the first two shots in Portugal (we chose Pfizer) and our boosters in Spain (Pfizer again) and they are all registered on our EU Covid passport apps.

Great stuff.

Lynn R

Brits did not have to wait ages to get their vaccinations in Spain IF they were properly registered with the Spanish health service. There was some delay initially for those who only had private health insurance but this was rectified by the authorities introducing a system of temporary registration with their local health centre for the sole purpose of getting the vaccines. Those living under the radar who were not registered as residents might well have had trouble and I cannot blame the authorities for that.

The vaccine programme itself began just 3 weeks after the UK rollout and by the summer a larger proportion of the Spanish population had been vaccinated than had been achieved in the UK. Spanish 12-16 year olds were vaccinated before the new school year began in September 2021 (unlike their contemporaries in the UK) resulting in far less disruption in schools and to children's education, and vaccination of 5-11 year olds began immediately after Christmas 2021.

Stingychips

I doubt a fugitive Brit would go back to the uk because he’s expired his 90 day visa. Undocumented people don’t care what politics are in place. Do you think all the illegal Albanians in the uk or Vietnamese care about visas. You can’t stop anyone from going anywhere if they really want to go.

DaveLovesDee

I was referring to those Brits in Spain who had been flying under the radar, but not those fleeing UK justice.

bobd22

I'm still waiting for the link to evidence that Brits resident in Spain were treated differently to Spanish citizens for vaccines?

Stingychips

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-new...d-24076518.amp. Who knows why Brits are going home. If they even are.

bobd22

Thanks but without knowing circumstances of the person who complained and their situation in Spain then I can't pass comment. I can though say my wife and my own experience. As soon as the local vaccination centre was set up we were contacted by telephone and offered appointments. After the first jab we were immediately given the appointment for second jab. Booster came up on the Spanish healthcare app we got an appointment and attended local Centro Salud for the booster. As far as I could determine we were not treated any different to Spaniards whatsoever everyone we dealt with was helpful and polite. I have friends who although resident are on visas and have to have private healthcare they contacted the health centre and were pretty much straight away put on health system as temp users to get the vaccine, their healthcare provider had informed them to do this. So my experience and everyone I know had a very different experience to the person in the article.

Lynn R

Our experience exactly mirrored yours, Bob. No complaints whatsoever and I think the whole vaccine delivery has been done very well.

The article says this man is 42 with pre-existing conditions. In order to register as a resident he would have needed to show proof of private health insurance which would have been difficult to get with those conditions (which is exactly why some people I know who had lived in Spain for many years before Brexit had never registered). Therefore it is almost certain he is not officially resident in Spain and has a damned cheek to complain that he could not get a vaccination here.