Immigration Detention and UK Families

Over 20,000 people enter UK Immigration Removal Centres each year (Home Office, 2023), to be held against their will as part of the immigration and removal processes. Whilst the harms that immigration detention does to the individuals detained are well documented, the “collateral harm” to people’s non-detained friends and family is less well known. This chapter examines the impact of immigration detention on people’s partners and children, arguing that such harm may be wide-ranging and severe, affecting the financial, emotional, physical and mental health and social dimensions of family members’ lives. It also argues that whether the person detained is released back into the community or removed from the country, the impact of detention has long-term implications for them and their loved ones. The chapter draws from a qualitative project conducted between 2014 and 2017. Researchers followed 30 mixed-citizenship status families consisting of foreign national men with insecure immigration status in the UK, and their British citizen partners and/or children. The chapter primarily draws from semi-structured interviews with these couples but is also informed by interviews with practitioners and observations of deportation appeals. Examination of this data demonstrates that the harms produced by immigration detention extend well beyond the individuals detained and the period of detention, to ripple across time and society.