BRIEFING - Deportation and voluntary departure from the UK www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk

According to the Home Office, these changes included the government reducing the use of detention and the size of the detention estate (see our briefing on Immigration Detention in the UK), and the government implementing changes following the Windrush scandal to give more scrutiny to detention decisions and ‘make better use of face- to-face engagement’ with detainees (Joint Committee on Human Rig. [...] The rise in the return of EU nationals coincided with an increase in the population of EU citizens resident in the UK, which took place before free movement ended, including during the transition period up to 31 December 2020 (see the Migration Observatory briefing, EU migration to and from the UK). [...] The rise in the return of EU nationals coincided with an increase in the population of EU citizens that are resident in the UK, and with a gradual decrease from April 2009 in the threshold of seriousness of crimes that led to an EU citizen being considered for removal (Home Office, 2019b, p. [...] UK PAGE 12 BRIEFING: Deportation and voluntary departure from the UK The number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK increased substantially in 2021 The end of EU freedom of movement greatly increased the circumstances under which border officers could turn away EU citizens at the border. [...] As a result, the number of EU citizens refused entry to the UK in ports (either in the UK or abroad at checkpoints in Belgium, France or the Netherlands) sharply increased in 2021.