Millions of EU Citizens Living in U.K. Will Need ID After Brexit

(Bloomberg) -- Millions of European Union citizens living in the U.K. will be required to carry identity documentation to prove they are entitled to remain in the country after Brexit, the British government said Monday.

“There will be a need to have some sort of documentation,” Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the lower house of parliament. “We are going to do it in a phased approach, to ensure that we use all the technology advantages that we are increasingly able to harness, to ensure that all immigration is carefully handled.”

Rudd was asked how businesses recruiting workers or providing accommodation to tenants would know applicants were legally allowed to be in the U.K. She said she wouldn’t set out details of the new system of documentation at this stage.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she hopes to guarantee the right for three million EU citizens in the U.K. to stay, with one million British expatriates also receiving assurances they can remain resident in other EU nations. May has declined to say how she expects the British migration system to operate after Brexit, despite calls for clarity from U.K.-based businesses keen to recruit from the EU.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Ross in London at tross54@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Crawford at acrawford6@bloomberg.net, Andy Sharp, Rosalind Mathieson