Since the Labour government took office, over 600 Brazilians, including 109 children, have been quietly deported from the UK on the largest Home Office charter flights in history.
The three flights, carried out in total secrecy, drew strong criticism from Latin American advocacy groups and legal experts.
The deportations took place on August 9, August 23 and September 27, 2024, involving 205, 206 and 218 people respectively. Each flight included children who, in many cases, had spent most or all of their lives in the UK, were integrated into schools and were part of family units. This unprecedented operation sparked outrage among human rights organizations and raised questions about the Home Office’s methods.
Voluntary returns or forced decisions?
While the Ministry of the Interior describes these expulsions as “voluntary”, the incentives offered raise concerns about the true nature of these departures. Families would have received up to £3,000 per person, including children, via pre-loaded cards that could be activated on arrival in Brazil.
Official figures show an overall increase in forced and voluntary returns, with 8,308 removals between July and September 2024, a 16% increase on the previous year. Voluntary returns accounted for 6,247 of these cases, an increase of 12%. Although the government has emphasized these figures, it has remained remarkably silent on the fact that Brazil is the main destination for these flights.
Impact on vulnerable families
Advocacy groups such as the Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK (CLAUK) have raised serious concerns about these removals, not least because of the lack of transparency. They claim that systemic barriers, including inadequate access to legal advice in Portuguese and misinformation about post-Brexit immigration rules, have left many Brazilians vulnerable.
“Brazilians face significant barriers in accessing quality information and accredited legal advice, particularly in their own language,” said CLAUK. Many of those deported had arrived via upward migration from EU countries, before becoming entangled in tough post-Brexit immigration policies.
A particularly alarming trend is the increased risk faced by Brazilian women who experience gender-based violence. Rights organizations have highlighted cases where women have been unable to escape abusive relationships because their partners have used their immigration status as leverage.
“These women are often trapped by abusive partners who use their British or European passports as tools of control, leaving them no viable route to safety or settlement,” CLAUK pointed out.
A poignant example is that of a mother and her two sons, one of whom has special educational needs. Fleeing domestic violence, they were forced to move between three temporary accommodations before being denied the concession for migrants suffering domestic violence. With no legal recourse to remain in the UK, the family was eventually deported to Brazil.
These cases raise troubling questions: how many of those deported actually wanted to leave, and how many felt compelled to do so because of systemic failings?
Fair immigration policies
Human rights groups are calling for fairer routes to citizenship and settlement for immigrants who have settled in the UK. “The government must respond to our demands for fair, affordable and secure routes to citizenship and settlement for the many communities that have put down roots in this country,” says CLAUK.
This plea underlines the growing concern among immigrant communities that current policies fail to recognize their contributions and the difficulties they face.
Government justifies deportations
The Home Office has defended its actions by focusing on a wider initiative to increase deportations of those who have “no right to be in the UK”.
A spokesman said, “We are already implementing our plan to speed up deportations of those who have no right to be in the UK, with deportations of foreign offenders and failed asylum seekers at their highest level for half a decade.”
The government claims that these deportations will reduce the state’s financial burden, including its reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers. The authorities estimate that these measures could save £4 billion over the next two years.
Criticism of secrecy and surveillance
The secrecy surrounding these flights has sparked a new wave of indignation. Latin American advocacy groups argue that these large-scale removals should have been subject to greater public scrutiny and oversight.
“These are historic thefts, yet the public knows almost nothing about the circumstances that led to these mass deportations,” remarked one activist.
The human cost
The most important question remains: what is the human cost of these policies? Families torn apart, children torn from their schools and people forced to return to precarious situations in their home countries are stark reminders of the complexity of immigration enforcement.
While advocacy groups continue to call for transparency and reform, the experiences of these deported Brazilians underline the need for a more humane and equitable approach to immigration policy.
This article is based on a report by Diane Taylor for The Guardian.