The first flight with a cross-channel small boat migrant has arrived in Paris, under the agreement between the UK and France.
The Indian national was taken out of the UK on an Air France flight on Thursday morning.
It has been a little over a month since the UK and France agreed on a year-long “one in, one out” pilot scheme of exchanges of migrants in the hope of deterring small boat crossings.
Meanwhile, later on Thursday, the High Court rejected an attempt to temporarily stop another migrant, an Eritrean man, from being removed to France, paving the way for a flight to take off early on Friday morning.
The London court heard the man, who was granted anonymity, was due to be deported from the UK at 06:15 BST on Friday.
In a three-hour emergency hearing on Thursday night, Mr Justice Sheldon ruled that there was no legal basis to delay the man’s transportation to France.
His lawyers had claimed he could be a victim of trafficking, and there had been assurances that the French would take good care of him.
The Eritrean male explained that he had left his native country in 2019 due to enforced conscription – and had spent time in Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Libya before reaching Europe, and ultimately Dunkirk in a bid to reach England – arriving on 6 August.
His later claim for asylum was rejected – along with his story that he must be given protection in the UK as a slave or trafficking victim after officials ruled he had reported changing his story and was not credible.
It follows the government’s announcement that it would appeal against a High Court ruling to temporarily suspend the deportation of another Eritrean man on modern slavery grounds.
Responding to the first migrant being sent under the program, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood stated: “This is an important step to protecting our borders.”
“It sends a message to individuals who come in on small boats: if you arrive in the UK illegally, we will try to send you away”, she further added.
Later in the day on Thursday, US President Donald Trump was questioned at a joint press conference at Chequers about what advice he would give Sir Keir Starmer on border control.
“I informed the prime minister that I would halt it, and it makes no difference whether you call out the military or not, it makes no difference what means you employ,” Trump replied.
As a reaction, Sir Keir stated: “This is a matter we are taking very seriously. We have made several cooperation agreements with other nations because this is a problem throughout Europe.
“We agreed the returns arrangement with France, and despite the issues with that scheme that you’ve seen over the past few days, a flight departed at 06:15 this morning, successfully returning a person in that scheme.”
Although the Home Office indicates more flights are scheduled to take place over the next few days, it’s not known how many travelers will be put on each one due to continuing legal action – or threats of it.
Some 100 men are now in immigration removal centres around Heathrow as part of the scheme. Each had been detained on arrival in the UK by a small boat and informed that they were possibly eligible for return to France.
Days later, the authorities informed them they would be provided with a departure date – but it is uncertain how many of them know what that is.
The BBC knows of about 50 men who are being helped by refugee charities – but on Thursday morning, fewer than a fifth of them had received a formal letter to tell them when they would be deported to France.
Up to a similar percentage are also reported to be lobbying for reconsideration because they are victims of trafficking and slavery, irrespective of the merits of their case to be considered a refugee.
Approximately 5,590 migrants have arrived in the UK since the scheme was introduced at the beginning of August.
Meanwhile, a government appeal has been filed, seeking to curtail the number of days migrants have to present evidence to contest their removal.
Additional deportation flights are scheduled this week and into next week, the Home Office announced.
It was initially believed another individual was going to depart on a flight on Thursday, but the BBC understands this is now not the case.
The Home Office also indicated that the initial arrivals in France under the new asylum pathway are set to arrive in the UK within the next few days.
“The UK will always do its share in assisting those who are truly fleeing persecution, but this is to be done through safe, legal, and controlled routes – not perilous crossings,” it further said.
Mahmood previously pledged to combat “vexatious, last-minute claims” after the High Court stepped in this week in the case of an Eritrean man who claimed, upon arrival in the UK by small boat last month, to be a victim of modern slavery just hours before his flight departed.
But the UK’s free-standing anti-slavery commissioner said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “deeply concerned” by the home secretary’s remarks.
Eleanor Lyons stated that framing the system as being abused created a “tool for traffickers to use with those victims that they are exploiting”.
The “one in one out” agreement is meant to serve as a deterrent against migrants trying to make the perilous English Channel crossing in small boats.
It suggests that, for every migrant the UK is sending back to France, another migrant with a good reason for seeking asylum in the UK will arrive in exchange.
The treaty would allow the UK to immediately detain anyone who enters the English Channel and, within about two weeks, reach an agreement with the French authorities to send the person back.
The plan is intended to encourage people to think twice before resorting to smugglers due to the risk of being returned.
There is no indication from either administration that the plan will, of itself, break cross-channel trade.
