Operation Nexus, a little-known arrangement between the police and Home Office, is changing the UK’s approach to deportation.
It was supposed to be aimed at ‘high harm’ foreign offenders. But the Home Office has cast its net far wider than that to include people with minor convictions, even if they are old or spent, as well as people who have had encounters with the police which fell short of conviction (such as an acquittal).There is no definition of 'high harm'. In 2014 the government admitted it had left it up to individual police forces to determine who came under its scope.
Why it is so important?
Operation Nexus, first launched in London in 2012, is part of creating what Theresa May, as home secretary, has called a ‘hostile environment’ towards ‘illegal’ or undesired migrants including EU nationals. Since 2012 over 3000 people have been removed.
The purpose of gathering the information is not to conduct a criminal investigation but to identify individuals, even if they have committed no criminal offence, who could be deported.
More widely, Nexus also seems to give the police the power to carry out checks, even where there is no reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence being committed. This should alarm us all.