In a recent article, the Guardian revealed that banks and building societies will be carrying out immigration checks on 70m current accounts from January ‘in the biggest extension of Theresa May’s plans to create a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants in Britain.’ The accounts of those found to be staying illegally – such as visa over-stayers, refused asylum seekers and foreign national offenders facing deportation – will be frozen in an attempt to incentivize them to return home.

A Free Movement blog post on the issue notes that with a Home Office error rate of 10%, many people are likely to see their accounts wrongly shut down or frozen, impacting on their ability to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, and provide for themselves and their families.