Automatic Deportation is Heartless: Valentine’s Day Campaign to End Automatic Deportation in the UK

Email your MP

This Valentine’s Day, our new campaign is demanding an end to the heartless practice of automatic deportation in the UK.

Through a powerful series of videos, we aim to expose the devastating consequences of this unjust policy, which rips families apart and completely disregards the individual stories and circumstances of those affected.

By shedding light on the human toll of automatic deportation, we seek to spark public conversation and drive legislative change to protect families and uphold the fundamental human rights of all individuals—regardless of their citizenship status.

We are calling on the public to reflect on how they would feel if someone they love were facing deportation and to act by contacting their MPs, urging them to stand up for fairness and compassion.

Automatic Deportation is heartless

At the end of a prison sentence, British citizens are free to rebuild their lives alongside their loved ones. But for those classified as ‘foreign,’ including many who were born or raised in the UK, different and harsher rules apply.

Introduced in 2008, automatic deportation is a policy that allows for the expulsion of non-British people who have served sentences of 12 months or more, without automatic legal advice or consideration of individual circumstances.

This blanket rule results in the routine breach of human rights, subjecting individuals—many of whom are deeply connected to the UK—to deportation without fair legal representation or a proper evaluation of their unique situation.

This leads to the deportation of people who:

• Were born and/or raised in the UK
• Grew up in the British care system and were under the state's care
• Have children and families in the UK
• Are vulnerable, including survivors of torture, trafficking, or those who may lack mental capacity
• Face unsafe conditions in the country they are being deported to
• Could have won their deportation appeal had they been provided with legal advice

In 2018, the then Prisons Ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, expressed his deep concern about the deportation of vulnerable adults, referring to many individuals impacted by this policy as "more British than foreign." Shaw emphasized the unfairness of deporting people who have grown up in the UK, stating:

"I find the policy of removing individuals brought up here from infancy to be deeply troubling. For low-risk offenders, it seems entirely disproportionate to tear them away from their lives, families and friends in the UK, and send them to countries where they may not speak the language or have any ties. For those who have committed serious crimes, there is also a further question of whether it is right to send high-risk offenders to another country when their offending follows an upbringing in the UK."

Street Interviews and Emotional Reactions

To engage the public and spark meaningful conversations about the injustice of automatic deportation, the campaign will release three videos throughout the Valentine’s Day week.

These videos will feature real people on the streets of the UK, responding to questions about the impact of this policy and how it affects families. The campaign will also include an emotional poem written by Malachi*, a man personally affected by automatic deportation, illustrating the deep emotional pain caused by this unjust system.

We asked people what they knew about the policy, how they would feel if someone they love were being deported and whether they think the Home Office has a heart.

• Watch 'Did you know?'
• Watch 'Does the Home Office have a heart?' (Coming soon!)
• Watch reactions to Malachi's* Poem (Coming soon!)
• Watch Malachi's* Poem

Join the Fight: Act Now

The campaign encourages the public to act by emailing their MPs and urging them to demand an end to automatic deportation. The campaign provides a link in the bio of their social media channels, where supporters can find more information about the issue and send a letter to their representative.

For more information, interviews, or media inquiries email [email protected].

*Malachi’s name has been changed for privacy reasons.