On September 28, 2023, Sandra, a fictitious name to protect her identity, landed at Edinburgh Airport with her partner after spending a few days in Spain, their country of origin. Since 2022, she had been living and working in the Scottish capital thanks to her application for family reunification, contemplated in the Withdrawal Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union following Brexit, which allows immediate family members of people who already resided there before December 31, 2020, to qualify for the same rights (housing, work, or healthcare) as their relatives.
At that time, her application was awaiting a decision. While waiting for an answer from the Home Office, she could live and work in the country with full rights. Everything went wrong at passport control. “They took me aside, searched me, assigned me a Spanish interpreter, took my fingerprints, took a photo of me from the front and side, and put me in a police van to take me to a building near the airport,” she explained in a video call.
Although she was able to sleep at home that night, the police took her passport and Spanish ID, and gave her a document stating that she had a flight to Madrid at 12:00 a.m. on October 1, 2023, three days later. They granted her what is known as immigration bail, a less restrictive alternative to detention that grants people greater freedom while the British government retains some control over their movements.
On June 23, 2016, the Brexit referendum was held, with the vote choosing to leave the European Union. Since Brexit came into effect on January 1, 2021, following the transition period, 2024 has been the year in which the most European Union citizens have entered an immigration removal center in the United Kingdom (counting from the date data is published, it was 2017). Added to this, EU citizens represent 53.5% of those rejected at its borders, that is, those who arrive in the United Kingdom but are not allowed to enter the country at passport control and are therefore returned to their country of origin. These are the effects of Brexit and the end of free movement between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Being an immigrant in the UK after BrexitThis article is part of an international investigation conducted by Maldita.es (Spain) and Funky Citizens (Romania). The project explores, in four articles, the difficulties experienced by immigrants in the United Kingdom after Brexit, both those who already lived there and those who arrived later, especially those from EU countries, with a special focus on Spanish and Romanians. Thanks to the collaboration of different organisations working to help and provide support to immigrants, and based on the multiple testimonies of those interviewed for this investigation, we have compiled a radiography of the United Kingdom's immigration system after Brexit came into effect. This investigation was supported by Journalismfund Europe.  |
From 22 Spanish immigrants detained in the United Kingdom in 2010 to 117 in 2024: the highest number of detentions of this nationality since data is publicly published
In 2010, the first year for which data is available, 22 Spanish nationals were detained in an immigration detention center in the United Kingdom. In 2024, 117 were detained, the year with the highest number of Spanish nationals since the British Home Office began to publish data. That year also saw record detentions for five other EU nationalities: Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, and Sweden.
Since 2021, the year Brexit came into effect after a transition period, 2024 has also been the year in which the most citizens of European Union countries have entered these centers. Although the British Home Office regularly publishes data on detentions in these immigration centers, it does not specify the reasons for their detention.
This includes people whose visas are about to expire, for example, as well as those detained in a raid if they do not have the right to work in the country, or those who have committed a crime and are about to be deported (foreign national offenders). As explained by the UK Home Office's Migration Statistics Center in an email to Maldita.es, when a person is detained in one of these centers, the detention “may continue lawfully only for as long as there is a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable time period”.
Although there is no data on why they were detained, experts in migration studies in the country, such as Peter William Walsh, a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, argue that the increase in numbers is “very directly related to Brexit because EU citizens lost their free movement rights”. This means that EU citizens now, to go to the UK, “need valid visas just like citizens from the rest of the world”, says Walsh.
Andrew Jordan, an immigration advisor at Settled, an organisation that helps Europeans settle in the UK and retain their rights, in the case of those who arrived before Brexit, agrees. “There is no doubt that Brexit is the main reason for this, as the Home Office now treats EU citizens differently.”
According to Christopher Desira, director and founder of the law firm Seraphus, which focuses on immigration and human rights, before 2021, people from EU countries entered an immigration detention center in the United Kingdom for various reasons, such as being a criminal offender, posing a threat to public order, security, or health, or, in some controversial cases, for minor infractions. Now, they would have to add having a residence permit, either under the EU Settlement Scheme or a visa that allows them to remain in the country.
There are currently seven immigration removal centers in the United Kingdom, apart from the short term holding facilities. In the near future, these seven centers could become nine, as Keir Starmer's Labour government intends to continue the initiative of the previous Conservative government and reopen two others: Campsfield, near Oxford Airport, and Haslar, near the port city of Southampton, closed in 2018 and 2015, respectively. It is the only country in Europe with no time limit on immigration detention, according to different human rights organisations. This means that if a person is detained because their work or student visa has expired, for example, they know when they enter one of these centers, but not when they leave. In Spain, for example, the maximum time a person can be held in a detention center for immigrants is 60 days.
Romania, Poland, and Lithuania are the EU nationalities that have entered detention centers the most since Brexit
Alexandru Costea, also using a fictitious name, is a bricklayer from southern Romania who arrived in London in 2022, after Brexit. He tells us his story during a break from work, renovating a house in the Islington neighborhood of North London, along with other Romanian and Moldovan colleagues.
Previously, he had lived in other European cities, earning a living in the construction sector. In 2022, he applied for pre-settled status, a residence permit for those who have been in the country for less than five years and to which only those who arrived in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020, were eligible.
During his first year, he says he traveled without problems, even leaving the country to go on vacation for a few days in his home country. On his return, he arrived at Luton Airport, a half-hour train ride from London. “At the checkpoint, they told me I didn't have the right to remain in the country.” The next day, he was returned to Romania.
Two days later, he bought a flight to Ireland to enter England by ferry via Northern Ireland, a route usually used by immigrants because of the free movement of citizens of both countries. He wanted to return to his wife and children and resolve his immigration issues from the country, but he was stopped again. “They asked me why I was coming back if they had already sent me back to Romania. I explained that I had been working in the UK for about a year, that I paid my taxes, and that I had my family there.”
Costea is one of the 1,466 Romanians who ended up in an immigration detention center in the UK in 2023. In 2024, this number rose to 1,938. They were the EU citizens who entered these centers the most in 2024. They were followed by those from Poland and Lithuania. These three nationalities accounted for 65.7% of the citizens of the 27 Member States detained in 2024.
The Consul General of Romania in London, Robert D. Marin, highlights the high mobility of Romanian citizens as a reason for leading the list of EU citizens rejected at the border and detained. Romanian are also of the 27 countries that have applied for residence permits under the EU Settlement Scheme as of March 2025 (1,834,561 people, a figure almost four times higher than that of Spanish citizens). This does not mean that this number of people have applied for the EU Settlement Scheme, as many of the applications are repeated (470,000 according to data from the British Home Office). Nor should it be taken as the number of Romanians living in the United Kingdom, as many may have returned to their home country or applied for the permit from there.
The year with the highest number of immigrant detainees from EU countries was 2017, when the United Kingdom had not yet withdrawn and, therefore, there was freedom of movement. It was also the year with the most detentions for all citizens of EU countries, with 505 more arrests than in 2024 and the year with the most detentions since records began for countries such as Poland (1,267) or Lithuania (674).
“It is the highest, but it's not a huge jump on the previous year. In 2018, there's a slight fall of about 1,000. Unfortunately, we just often don't know what the cause of these fluctuations are. The data themselves don't tell us”, says Peter William Walsh.
As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian a few months earlier, in May 2016, the year the Brexit referendum was voted in, new guidance was issued “allowing immigration enforcement teams to deport EU citizens purely on the grounds that they were sleeping rough.” Bail for Immigration Detainees explained to the British newspaper that, in addition to homeless people, they had noticed an increase in the detention of people “who had convictions abroad but had sought a new life in the UK.”
In 2020, the NGO Detention Action expressed concern about this increase, even though Brexit had not yet taken effect. “European citizens are already being detained in increasing numbers,” they stated. “Thousands of people who had a right to be in the UK, and who had lived and worked here for decades, were suddenly forced to remain in the country illegally. This resulted in detention and deportation,” they added.
The impossibility of knowing the reasons for immigration detention: the British government also did not provide data before Brexit
Answering why citizens of Eastern European countries are the most likely to enter immigration centers in the United Kingdom, or why Spanish are the tenth most frequently arrested in 2024, is complex. The data published by the Home Office does not show the reason, nor what percentage committed a crime, or whether they were simply detained for having an overstayed visa or for not having a work permit.
For Peter William Walsh, this is "a big gap." One possible reason why Romanians are the most frequently detained is that they are more likely to have committed a crime, he says. This, he explains, is reflected in the latest prison statistics published in March 2025, where Albanian, Polish, and Romanian nationalities are the most represented, after the British. According to Walsh, they are more likely to have been convicted, detained, and deported for being foreign criminals.
“There may be other reasons—could it be that they are more likely to violate their visa conditions or overstay their visas? These are also plausible explanations, but we can't be completely sure just by analysing the data,” explains the researcher at the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory.
In 2021, 85 Spanish citizens were admitted to an immigration detention center, according to data published from the Home Office. That year, various media outlets reported on the entry into one of these centers, Yarl's Wood, of a Valencian woman who spent several days there. After being asked at the airport about the reason for her visit, she replied that she had come to look for work, so they considered her ineligible, and sent her to a detention center.
As the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained to the Spanish newspaper El País following this arrest, by May 2021, they were already aware of nine similar cases of detention of Spanish to that of the Valencia woman throughout that year, the first after Brexit, and in the midst of the grace period for applying for pre-settled or settled immigration status, which ended on June 30, 2021.
However, the same ministry, in response to Maldita.es, denied having data on the reason for the detention of Spanish immigrants in these centers: "There is no obligation on the part of the detained person or the arresting state to provide information on the cause of the detention." The only data the ministry has is for people with Spanish nationality in a British prison for having committed a crime, ranging from robbery to rape or murder, figures that would only appear in the Home Office data if they entered a center to be deported.
The data published by the British Home Office on its website does not include those who, like Sandra, were detained in police detention centers, short-term detention facilities at ports and airports, including those at the former Manston military base (used as a processing center for those arriving by small boat), and those detained under both immigration and criminal law.
12,000 EU migrants rejected at the border in 2024: more than half of the total
The number of migrants arriving in the UK and being sent back to their country of origin is much higher than the number of those detained. Walsh believes this is probably because many of these people "didn't realize that free movement was no longer for them."
More than 12,000 EU citizens were refused entry to the UK in 2024, representing 53.5% of the total number of foreigners (23,009) who were not allowed to enter the country upon arrival at a port or airport. Romanians have also been the EU nationality with the highest number of returns to countries of origin since 2012, according to the UK Home Office.
In a University of Oxford study based on interviews with Romanian and Polish citizens who returned home after being turned away, they concluded that the turnaround was often arbitrary and based on the conclusions drawn by the border officer: “One returning Romanian citizen told us she was refused entry because Border Force (the police force responsible for borders in the UK) assumed she was coming to work in the UK, as she didn’t have a return ticket. Another returning Romanian said he was refused entry by the Home Office because “they believed he was traveling with too many pieces of clothes”.
Any EU citizen can enter the UK and stay as a tourist for six months, and until April 2025, they were not required to use the electronic travel permit ETA, (a permit to travel to the UK that the British government requires of all non-visa travelers). However, many of them are turned away at border control. This often triggers alarm bells.
“They will ask people what their purpose is in coming to the UK. And if they are not convinced it is genuinely tourism, the Home Office will assume they are a higher-risk group and will refuse entry at the port” to the country, explains Oxford University researcher Peter William Walsh.
“Why are you coming? Where are you going to stay? How long are you going to be in the country?” These were some of the questions asked of Eva Martín, a young woman from Zaragoza, Spain, who arrived at Stansted Airport in London to work as an au pair with a British family in November 2024.
She contacted them through AuPair World, a website where people who want to work caring for children in other countries can contact a family. “I had my profile there and I was sending messages to potential families. I spoke to several, and the one I was most likely to work with was the one I was going to work with. They needed a girl to stay at least until Christmas, until December 22nd, and then, based on experience and other factors, extend it until summer,” she says. “They told me they had had other au pairs recently and that there hadn't been any problems.”
However, when she arrived at the automated passport control, it wasn't working, and they sent her to a window with a police officer. “They asked me what the return ticket was, and I explained that the family was going to buy it for me by the end of December. I think that was the problem,” she laments. Eva claims she spent eight hours at the airport police station. “Each of the detainees was in a separate room. There was a window that faced the hallway, and there was a table and two chairs,” she says. Furthermore, Eva explains, they made her turn off her cell phone, took her statement, took her fingerprints, and took a photo.
“After eight hours, the police officer came and told me they were going to return me to Spain the next day, but that I could stay with my family until then, and that they were going to take my passport to make sure I was coming back. I had a 6 p.m. flight the next day.” Eva never met the family in person.
When asked about the possibility of going as an au pair from Spain to the United Kingdom, AuPair World stated that "the only way to obtain the necessary entry and residence documents in this case would be to apply for a student visa and attend intensive language courses or enroll at a local university." However, they state: "This is not fully applicable." The British Home Office explains on its website that "an au pair should not be hired if they are in the country on a visitor visa or if they are visiting the United Kingdom for six months or less," which was Eva's case.
When the Home Office gets It wrong: the British Government has disbursed nearly €12 Million in compensation for unlawful detention in 2023-2024
Sometimes, the UK Home Office “gets things wrong and makes mistakes,” explains Citizens Rights Project CEO Noelia Martínez. According to data from the Oxford University Migration Observatory, the British government paid out nearly £12 million (approximately €14 million) in compensation for 838 cases of “wrongful detention” of immigrants in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. This is the year with the highest number of cases since 2014-2015, the earliest year for which records are available.
In 2021-2022, in addition to the £12.7 million it paid out in compensation for wrongful detention in immigration centers, it paid another £25.1 million to more than 700 victims of the "Windrush scandal," as revealed by The Guardian. This scandal, which led to the resignation of British Home Secretary Amber Rudd in 2018, arose after it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens, many of whom were members of the "Windrush" generation, had been unfairly detained, deported, and denied their legal rights. This generation is made up of those who arrived in the United Kingdom from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1973. Many worked in the nascent National Health Service (NHS) and other sectors affected by British labor shortages after World War II.
Since 2019, the British government has been providing compensation to all members of this generation or their descendants who believe they have been affected by the UK's immigration policy. By March 2025, they have disbursed more than 109 million pounds (approximately 129 million euros), according to data published on their website.
Although Sandra is not considering filing a claim, as she is awaiting a resolution on her immigration status and fears it could harm her, Citizens Rights Projects CEO Noelia Martinez affirms that her case was a mistake. "Her application was rejected, but she requested a review within the 28-day period required by law, and until it is denied, you have full rights." The problem, she explains, is that the Ministry of the Interior hadn't updated her information in the system, and it appeared rejected. For Martínez, this is "a case of negligence because they had more than a month to update the information and they didn't."
There are certain activities that Sandra, unlike her partner or other people with approved immigration status, cannot do. Since her arrest at the airport and release in September 2023, she hasn't left the country again. "It's a recommendation, because if she leaves, they may not let her in, or they may detain her again and try to expel her," says the CEO of the Citizens Rights Project.
"These are small things. For example, I have a dental problem, my body rejected an implant and I need treatment, but the quote they give me here is over 15,000 pounds (more than 17,000 euros), I can't afford it and the health service (NHS) tells me there's a six-month wait." Another example: "Now my Spanish driving license has also expired and here, since I don't have immigration status, I can't get one," says Sandra.
Sandra's case, says Andreea Dumitrache, is a common one in the United Kingdom. "They believe you must stay in your country until your immigration status is resolved. In practice, it's very confusing for people because, as soon as you file an appeal, for example, they notify you of your rights, which include the right to work in the United Kingdom and all your other rights," she says.
In addition to the aforementioned Detention Action, other organisations such as the3million, which aims to protect the rights of EU citizens, also fear a repeat of the Windrush scandal involving EU citizens. “These triggering events can occur many years after changes in policy and legislation. There is still an unknown (but suspected high) number of people who have not changed jobs or addresses since Brexit, who have not had to update their driving licence, who have not travelled, who have not required hospital treatment or social benefits,” and who may not have been aware of the mandatory application for immigration status, they stated in an article published on their website.
To this day, Sandra continues to live and work in Edinburgh, waiting for her application to be resolved. If her application is rejected, she would have to find other alternatives to remain in the country with her partner or leave the United Kingdom.
The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is a settlement program for EU citizens who were living in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020. It is part of the Withdrawal Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, and is intended to guarantee residency and acquired rights for these citizens. The deadline to apply was June 30, 2021, although there are some cases in which a late application can be submitted. For example, immediate family members of people who resided in the United Kingdom before December 31, 2020, who wish to reside in the country.
Depending on the length of time a person has been residing in the country, a different immigration status is available:
Pre-settled: for those who have lived in the United Kingdom for less than five years.
Settled: for citizens who have lived in the country for more than five years. It is an indefinite residence permit, although it can be lost if the person spends more than five consecutive years outside the United Kingdom.
According to data from the British Home Office, since its launch on August 28, 2018, and until December 31, 2024, the scheme has received 8.4 million applications, corresponding to 6.3 million people. In total, 5.7 million have been granted (4.1 million with indefinite or settled immigration status and 1.7 million with temporary or pre-settled status).
From January 1, 2021, any EU citizen wishing to live and/or work in the United Kingdom must apply for a visa from their home country. There are different types of visas: work, study, or family, among others. Some visas, such as work visas, require sponsorship licenses approved by the British Home Office.
*The EUSS applies to citizens of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. For citizens of Ireland it is voluntary.
“The family I was going as an au pair with told me I wouldn't have any problems”: when immigrants end up returned from the UK or detained after receiving bad advice 
