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Immigration detention and removal in the UK

"We were sleeping and the officer came. It was scary and Mum was crying."
"I didn’t think it was real, not real life."
"They were bashing and kicking the door."
“It’s not nice going to the toilet in front of an officer."
"They broke our house."

Starting in 2009, the End Child Detention Now campaign began to illuminate the UK’s appalling policy of arresting and detaining children in conditions known to harm them. The campaign's journalism grew into Shine A Light.



Home Office fails Albanian child refugees

Esme Madill 9 May 2018

One Saturday at a London drop-in for children fleeing crime gangs and blood feuds.

The ‘Windrush generation’ and ‘illegal immigrants’ are both our kin

Luke de Noronha 1 May 2018

As well as newfound sympathy for the Windrush generation, we should remember that ‘illegal immigrants’ are our kin, especially if we are to challenge the racism of the ‘hostile environment’.

Amber Rudd resigns, the anti-migrant machine works on

Corporate Watch 30 April 2018

Hardline policies have failed in their stated aim of reducing immigration. Is their true purpose to impress particular voters? 

Theresa May’s hostile immigration regime destroys another family

Mia Light 29 March 2018

British migration policy forces working class families to choose between country and the people they love.

How lawyers fail migrants in the UK

Mia Light 17 October 2017

Access to justice has diminished almost to vanishing point, leaving asylum seekers and irregular migrants at risk of exploitation.

The UK outsourcing experiment: playing with vulnerable lives

Kiri Kankhwende 10 July 2017

A review of Alan White’s Who Really Runs Britain? — the private companies taking control of benefits, prisons, asylum, deportation, security, social care and the NHS.

‘How do we get out if there’s a fire?’ In Yorkshire, G4S tenants live in fear

John Grayson 27 June 2017

Security company G4S housed six families with babies and toddlers in a fire-trap hostel in Halifax.

High Court blasts ‘outrageous’ assault by Tascor staff on torture survivor

Gareth Mitchell 23 June 2017

Highly unusual punitive damages awarded to Felix Wamala, who was subjected to intensely painful, dangerous restraint techniques.

Fit to run a prison? G4S dodges difficult questions

Sarah Uncles 8 June 2017

At a locked down shareholders’ meeting, security company boss sidestepped hard questions, praised BBC exposé of abuse.

‘If I’d known what to ask for, I wouldn’t have gone hungry’

Lydia Noon 3 June 2017

When Theresa May’s Britain grants asylum, a brutal 28 day countdown starts.

Theresa May’s tough line on immigration punishes British children

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 3 June 2017

“To them it’s just another number, someone else being sent back. But when you’ve got three children being left without their dad … it’s quite major.”

Money talks: Meet three people who want to live in the UK

Usman Sheikh 3 June 2017

Government visa fees tell would-be immigrants that in the UK, money talks ...

Refuse, retract, resist: boycott the schools census

Phoebe Braithwaite 17 May 2017

As the British state tries to make a register of foreign-born children, parents should question a liberal trust in government and reject borders in classrooms. An interview with Gargi Bhattacharyya.

17 plead not guilty over Stansted deportation protest

Phil Miller 4 May 2017

Defendants contest public order charges arising from protest that stopped a Home Office removal flight.

Behave or get deported, says G4S

John Grayson 24 April 2017

EXCLUSIVE: The world’s biggest security company, landlord to asylum-seekers, threatens tenants with expulsion from the UK.

5 reasons why we stopped a UKgov deportation flight to Nigeria last night

Nadia Graham 29 March 2017

As a government ghost flight prepared for take-off, activists intervened.

Sheffield campaigner scheduled for life-threatening removal to Cameroon on Friday

Sarah Eldridge 21 March 2017

Paul Blomfield MP works to avert deportation of Pride Mbi Agbor, a popular member of Yorkshire’s City of Sanctuary movement. 

Child was held for a staggering 151 days in men’s immigration lockup Morton Hall in Lincolnshire

Clare Sambrook 21 March 2017

Today’s inspection report reveals that children were detained among 400 adults. One detainee had been convicted of multiple offences against children. (See also: 'People come in here normal, but they get ill')

‘People come in here normal, but they get ill.’ Protesting against deaths at a UK migrant jail

John Grayson 21 March 2017

Intrusive police surveillance deployed against peaceful protestors at Morton Hall. (See also: Child held for 151 days at Morton Hall)

Fighting to win asylum from rape: the case of Erioth Mwesigwa

Sian Evans 20 February 2017

Today, Monday 20 February, at 4.30pm, a protest has been called outside the Home Office against the removal and detention of Erioth Mwesigwa, a rape survivor from Uganda.

Fail, fail, and have another government contract

John Grayson 16 February 2017

Security contractors G4S and Serco and housing company Clearsprings have for years supplied UK asylum seekers with shoddy housing. The contracts carry on regardless.

The end of domestic violence support for black and brown women in the UK?

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi 6 December 2016

Dedicated refuges were created to answer a desperate need. Now their survival is at risk. 

The seeds of post-Brexit racial violence lie in government policy

Jenny Bourne 2 December 2016

Racist attacks are condemned by politicians who stop short of examining their complicity. New research suggests policy ignites hatred.

Welcome to my asylum home. I’d offer you a seat — if I had one

John Grayson 18 November 2016

Meanwhile a parliamentary inquiry into asylum housing lumbers on over ten months . . . and today in Leeds the Home Office holds yet another 'consultation' on a sorry business.

Delayed lives — the hidden misery of stateless people locked up in the UK

Chris Nash 10 November 2016

Alienated, homeless, denied the right to work, criminalised.

Lost childhoods: age disputes in the UK asylum system

Kamena Dorling 20 October 2016

Children seeking asylum in the UK are regularly disbelieved about how old they are and can end up facing harmful, protracted disputes. The culture of disbelief so often criticised in the Home Office has now seeped into some local authorities.

Theresa May, this is not a ‘crisis of migration’, but a crisis of inhumanity

Simon Parker 24 September 2016

In a carefully coded speech, the UK Prime Minister categorises people on the move as “threats that we face” alongside war and global terrorism.

A special gift from UK to Nigeria: promoting human rights or secrecy?

Lotte Lewis and 'Mark Umunna’ 20 September 2016

At Lagos Airport, Nigerians deported from Britain are processed out of sight in a ‘reception centre’ given by Britain.

Rats in the yard: 4 years of UK asylum housing by G4S

John Grayson 13 September 2016

Today, yet again, a Parliamentary committee will hear how commercial landlords are failing asylum seeker tenants. And then what?

Do your parenting by Skype, UK tells fathers being deported to Jamaica

Mia Light 6 September 2016

A secret Home Office flight tomorrow (Wednesday 7 September) will forcibly remove fathers 4,500 miles away from their children in the UK.

Rough handling and restraint: UK forced removals still a nasty business

Lotte Lewis 23 July 2016

A support group gathers disturbing testimony from people deported by commercial contractors Tascor.

Theresa May's dangerous record on immigration

Usman Sheikh 22 July 2016

Theresa May's time as home secretary was marked by the further marginalisation of immigrants in this society. In a diverse nation, it's worrying that such a person becomes prime minister.

G4S: Don't blame us — blame the prison system

Rebecca Roberts 14 June 2016

An activist reports from G4S annual general meeting, Surrey, England, 26 May 2016.

British security company G4S confirms that Florida shooter is one of their own

Clare Sambrook 13 June 2016
  • • Omar Mateen, who killed 50 people in gay nightclub, was employed as armed guard by G4S.
  • • G4S guards have killed before.
  • • Company sells its expertise in vetting staff.

Ghosted away: UK’s secret removal flights examined

Lotte Lewis 6 June 2016

On Home Office flights private sector guards apply restraints so extreme they are very rarely used in prisons. What happened on the 24/25 May flight to Nigeria and Ghana?

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