More than 600 Brazilians, including 109 children, have been secretly removed from the UK – on the three largest Home Office deportation charter flights in history – since the Labour government came to power, the Observer has learned.

The Home Office has never before removed any nationality in such large numbers on individual deportation charter flights. It is thought that children have never before been removed on these flights.

According to freedom of information data seen by the Observer, the three flights were on 9 August, when 205 people including 43 children were removed; 23 August, when 206 people were removed, including 30 children; and 27 September, when 218 people were removed, including 36 children. All the deported children were part of family units, and many of them would have been settled at school and are likely to have spent most if not all of their lives in the UK.

The returns were classed as voluntary and were likely to include people who had overstayed their visas. The Home Office offers incentives for voluntary returnees of up to £3,000 including for babies and children. The sweeteners are provided in the form of pre-loaded cards that can be activated once people touch down in their home country.

The government is keen to trumpet its deportation credentials with figures published on Thursday revealing 8,308 enforced and voluntary returns between July and September 2024, a 16% increase on the same period last year. The majority – 6,247 – were voluntary returns, an increase of 12% on this category of returns during the same period in 2023. While the government is keen to promote the numbers returned they have failed to mention publicly that the destination of these historic deportation flights was Brazil.

Latin American rights organisations have raised concerns about how the Home Office was able to get such large numbers of a single nationality including unprecedented numbers of children likely to be settled at school out of the country completely under the radar.

The organisation Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK expressed alarm about the hundreds of secret deportations: “We are concerned by the sharp increase in voluntary returns of Brazilians in the last year. As the largest Latin American community in the UK, Brazilians face significant barriers to accessing high-quality information and accredited legal advice, particularly in their own language. Many arrived through onward migration from EU countries. However, post-Brexit immigration rule changes have left hundreds of them and their non-EU family members at risk of having their rights denied due to misinformation and harsh eligibility requirements.” The coalition warned that Brazilian women are particularly at risk for the Home Office initiative to remove Brazilians from the UK en masse, particularly those experiencing gender-based violence.

“These women are often trapped by abusive partners who use their British or EU passports as tools of control, leaving them with no viable path to safety or settlement,” they say.

In one case a woman was being supported by Latin American Women’s Aid. She was fleeing violence with her two sons – including a disabled child with special education needs. They were forced to move between three hotels. The woman was refused what is called the Migrant Victim of Domestic Abuse Concession, which allows migrant domestic violence victims to stay in the UK and had no choice but to return to Brazil.

It is not known how many people on the three flights did not want to return to Brazil due to fears about their safety but felt they had no choice but to board the planes.

“The government must respond to our requests for fair, affordable and safe routes toward citizenship and settlement for the many communities who have laid down roots in this country,” coalition members said.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are already delivering on our plan to ramp up removal of those with no right to be in the UK, with removals of foreign offenders and failed asylum seekers at their highest level in half a decade … “This will reduce our reliance on hotels and costs of accommodation, saving an estimated £4bn over the next two years.”