A Dutch MEP is to form a cross-party taskforce to look at cases in which EU nationals living in Britain have faced a ‘bureaucratic wall’ to remain in Britain, the Guardian has reported.

Sophie in ‘t Veld, who represents the Liberal democratic party D66, told the paper she is responding to concerns EU nationals had raised with her and after learning about the problems facing Dutch national Monique Hawkins.

Hawkins has lived in Britain for 24 years and is married to a British man but was advised to prepare to leave the country after she failed to make a correct application for permanent residency. Several other cases have since emerged.

In ‘t Veld told the Guardian she intends to form the taskforce after British prime minister Theresa May triggers article 50 and begins Brexit negotiations. She  said she will also request that the European parliament’s committee on civil liberties asks Britain to explain the problems people have been faced with.

‘People feel they are being harassed,’ she said. ‘Why is the British government trying to make it so hard for people who have been living in the UK for decades, who have set up a family there, work there? It is their home.’