UK: Calls for Government to limit collateral damage caused to families by immigration enforcement
10 January 2018
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UK
Calls for Government to limit ‘collateral damage’ caused to families by immigration enforcement
10.1.18
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"Political pledges to reduce immigration are splitting up families, according to new research which urges the Government to revise its policies in order to reduce ‘collateral damage’ inflicted on partners and children.
In the first study of its kind, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), researchers at the University of Bristol explored how a precarious immigration status impacts on family life.
Between 2014 and 2017, they followed 30 families consisting of foreign national men at risk of deportation and their British or European partners and children."
See: Calls for Government to limit ‘collateral damage’ caused to families by immigration enforcement (Bristol University, link):
"While partners and children are exempt from British immigration controls, the men's temporary or expired visas, asylum claims, illegal entry or criminal records make them liable to immigration enforcement measures such as immigration detention and removal from the country.
The men's immigration status prohibits them from employment and presents many other everyday restrictions, causing insecurity which was shown to harm the whole family.
Specifically, separation due to fathers being held in Immigration Removal Centres causes considerable financial and emotional damage, not only to the individuals detained but their family members."
Policy briefings based on the research:
Immigration enforcement and Article 8 rights: Mixed-immigration status families (pdf)
Detention of fathers in the immigration system (pdf)
Deporting High Harm foreign criminals: Operation Nexus (pdf)
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