How Channel 4 News has shone a light on the issue of immigration and deportation over the last decade

The Windrush scandal shows how the issue of immigration, and the threat of deportation, has the potential to send shockwaves throughout the UK and topple cabinet ministers.

It played a big part in the EU referendum campaign, as freedom of movement came under scrutiny. But immigration, and our attitude to it, has rarely been out of the headlines, as senior home affairs correspondent Simon Israel’s revelatory reporting from the last decade shows.

‘Victim of hostile environment’ living in fear of deportation

6m

28 May 2018

“I am 100 per cent a victim of the hostile environment”. The words of a promising student whose Jamaican born family has been fighting for a decade to remain in the UK. The courts have ordered the Home Office to reconsider its refusal three times.

Care workers fight deportation to Philippines

6m

22 Feb 2018

A sharp drop in EU immigration has been revealed in net migration figures published today. We have spoken to one couple who have just been told they have to leave after a decade caring for the UK’s elderly.

MPs back child refugee changes

3m

16 Mar 2018

The Home Office says it will not support legislation which would make it easier for refugee families to be reunited in the UK.

‘You have ignored the service I have done for this country’: British army interpreter seeks refuge in the UK

3m

9 Dec 2017

“You have ignored the service I have done for this country, and the risks I have taken”. Those were the words of a former British army Afghan interpreter who’s seeking asylum in the UK.

Court rejects child refugees challenge

3m

2 Nov 2017

“The government are letting down a lot of kids,” Lord Dubs said today, after campaigners lost a legal challenge against the number of unaccompanied child refugees accepted by the UK under the so-called Dubs amendment.

Crackdown on suspected people smugglers in Europe

4m

26 Oct 2017

Immigration officers say they have smashed one of Europe’s most extensive human smuggling networks. A co-ordinated series of raids has led to 11 arrests in the UK and a further 15 in Bulgaria and Belgium.

Detention of torture survivors ruled unlawful

3m

10 Oct 2017

The Home Secretary’s efforts to detain hundreds of survivors of torture has been declared unlawful. A High Court judge has ruled that many were wrongly locked up in immigration centres because the policy brought in last year ignored the correct legal interpretation of torture.

Government tightens rules for refugees

3m

10 March 2017

All refugees who apply to live in Britain permanently after five years here will have to undergo an official review to decide whether it is now safe for them to return home.

Child refugee row – 350 children helped so far

4m

9 Feb 2017

“We cannot withdraw from our long and proud history of helping the most vulnerable.” The words of the Archbishop of Canterbury today on the escalating row over the decision to stop bringing in lone child refugees under the so-called Dubs Amendment.

Trial collapses after immigration officials ‘lie under oath’

23 Oct 2014

Exclusive: The UK’s biggest sham marriage trial has collapsed with the judge accusing UKBA officers of deliberately concealing evidence and lying under oath.

UN rapporteur banned from Yarl’s Wood detention centre

15 Apr 2014

A “boys’ club” culture, sexual bullying in schools and austerity endangering women’s protection are findings of the UN’s special rapporteur on women and violence. Now she’s been barred from Yarl’s Wood.

British immigration law: ‘putting a price on family life’

23 Nov 2013

“It’s been a long hard struggle with a system that puts a price on family life.” A British woman is reunited with her Syrian husband, but restrictive family migration rules still separate others.

Trapped in Syria’s civil war with no escape

3 Sep 2013

A British woman whose Syrian husband is desperate to join her in the UK says new family migration rules are keeping them apart and putting his life at risk.

One thousand refugees could have been ‘wrongly convicted’

30 Jul 2013

In a ruling which could affect thousands of refugees, the court of appeal quashes the convictions of five asylum seekers said to have used false passports to travel to the UK.

Trafficking victim’s nightmare journey to UK drug farm

21 June 2013

As a senior judge rules those who have been convicted of crimes after being trafficked into the UK are victims, not criminals, Channel 4 News meets one boy forced to work on a cannabis farm in Harrow.

Palestinian poet wins deportation appeal

9 Apr 2012

Palestinian activist Sheikh Raed Salah wins an appeal against deportation from the UK, but a Jewish group has reacted with disappointment at the decision.

Trafficked child vows to continue fight for justice

20 May 2011

As four child trafficking victims are awarded damages after police failed to investigate their complaints, one claimant tells Channel 4 News she wants to hunt down traffickers and free other victims.

Trafficked woman ‘was sent back to be tortured’

11 April 2011

Exclusive: A woman deported from Britain to be raped and tortured in Moldova has won damages from the Home Office but the project that took her in has had its funding withdrawn, Channel 4 News learns.

Home Office launches Inquiry into Yarl’s Wood allegations

7m

15 Jul 2009

The Home Office has launched an inquiry into the conduct of immigration officers who tried to deport a Sudanese mother and her daughters in direct contravention of a ministerial order. One of the children has told Channel Four News that she was threatened with injury if she did not board the plane.