The trouble is that the new trade deals may not be as good as the deals we no longer have ?
”Providing services in Mexico
If you are a UK business providing services in Mexico, there could be changes to the way you provide services.
Mexico may impose new trade restrictions for some types of services. You may no longer have the right to provide some services, or to provide some services in particular ways, to Mexico from 1 January 2021. If in doubt about how the services you provide to Mexico will be affected, you should contact the relevant regulatory body in Mexico.”.
So it looks like once things start to open up after Covid we really are going to have to get used to some big changes as we accept the new normal.
1. Registration. The Express article is so light on facts it's hard to say which exact piece of paperwork was missing. But I suspect (as Mike mentions) that these guys hadn't registered with the local authority. This something you need to do irrespective of whether you came from an EU member state or not, so not a Brexit matter. German authorities deporting unregistered workers is a commonplace occurrence.
2. Work Permit. For business trips not considered employment (basically meetings/paperwork etc.) they wouldn't have needed any permit and could have stayed for up to 90 days. As they were electricians they should have applied for a work visa. This change is a Brexit matter, as before they would not have needed any additional paperwork. However, in all likelihood the work visa would have been granted, just as for American or Indian or Chinese contractors who do this at the moment.
3. EUR ING. Given that FEANI is nothing to do with the EU this will not be affected. It could however be that to fulfil the visa requirements the EUR ING is helpful.
Despite the presentation by the Daily Express, this is absolutely not a case of Germany, or Angela Merkel personally, toughening the stance on unregistered workers after Brexit, this is the completely normal and appropriate application of German law. As a British Engineer working in the EU I can only say I hope the EU workers in the UK are treated with the patience and respect (and often sympathy) with which I have been.
An electrician is also a qualified and restricted trade unlike many "electricians" or "engineers" in UK.
And, barring propaganda, UK was never a "vassal state" nor was it subjugated to anything. Also compare the size of unelected "Brussels" serving 27 nations with the size of unelected WhitehaLL, Cabinet Office, etc.
I thought in The IET we would be above jingoism and propaganda.
