London: With the two-year clock ticking on Britain's departure from the European Union, Spanish nurse Joan Pons and millions of other EU citizens living in the UK are facing an uncertain future.
"They are scared that we'll go on holiday and never come back," he told AFP.
Britain formally launched Brexit proceedings on Wednesday, following a divisive referendum campaign which saw immigration take centre stage.
But for now EU nationals — most of them from eastern and southern Europe — do not know if they can stay.
"We are thinking of moving to Australia," a 45-year-old Spanish nurse from Barcelona, who is married to a Spanish doctor, told AFP.
She requested anonymity since she has not yet spoken about her plans to her managers.'Bargaining chips'
EU workers are also the backbone of the "Garden of England" in Kent, southeast England, where local farmers say they rely heavily on foreign staff because they cannot find enough Britons willing to do the required jobs.
"It's a very hard job. You start at five o'clock in the morning, up to 10 hours every day, six days a week," said Szomoru, who came to Britain 10 years ago and started out picking strawberries before being promoted to her current job.
Szomoru is married to a tractor driver from Hungary and the two are planning to buy a house in the area, seeing their future in Britain.
Nick Ottewell, the director of the farm where Szomoru works, said he had received insults for making comments about the need for immigrants in the local press.
Ottewell said sectors like farming, healthcare and construction "wouldn't function" without them.
Frenchman Nicolas Hutton, who co-chairs The3Million, campaign group for EU nationals, told AFP he was "devastated" after the referendum result and wanted EU citizens to "have a voice".
"I hope that the British government and the EU will listen to us and ring fence our rights so we are not used to negotiate any other items on the agenda," he said after May announced the start of Brexit.
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