FAMILIES of people deported by the Home Office have been driven into poverty and forced to rely on foodbanks, according to a new report. 

The study by Families for Justice and Detention Action also found that children had developed signs of post-traumatic stress and depression following deportation. 

The report, published on Friday, calls for the current automatic deportation rules to be scrapped. 

Under this law, non-British citizens who receive a prison sentence of over 12 months can be subjected to automatic deportation. 

“This law has made many of us into single parents, depriving our children of their fathers and leaving us financially and socially disadvantaged, with no additional support from the government,” said Families for Justice — a group of wives, daughters, mothers and partners affected by deportations. 

The report notes that some families have been forced into poverty by deportations, describing this as “unacceptable, unjust and completely avoidable.” 

One woman, Emily, whose husband of 20 years was deported in February 2020, said she used to work full time on a decent salary but must now rely on benefits and food banks to survive.

In the foreword of the report, Detention Action director Bella Sankey wrote: “Britain’s current deportation laws are an affront to compassion and common sense. 

“They were first introduced in 2007 as a knee jerk response to a political scandal, and they give no thought to the complexities of the real-life cases they relate to.”

The report calls for the automatic deportation rule to be replaced with a system whereby deportations can only go ahead if they are genuinely in the public interest.

It also calls for family members, including children, to be included in deportation decisions and provided with support.