Quarter more migrants arrive under ‘one in one out’ deal than removed

The number of migrants brought into Britain under Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ deal with France is 25 per cent higher than the total who have been removed.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed 281 small boat migrants have been deported back to France under the deal.

But, so far, 350 other migrants have been admitted from France to the UK by the Home Office.

She confirmed more migrants are already lined up in France ‘waiting to come over’ under the reciprocal terms of the deal with president Emmanuel Macron’s government.

The difference between the arrivals and deportations carried out under the treaty were ‘very normal discrepancies’, Ms Mahmood said.

‘We’ve had 350 people come in to the country from France and 281 have been removed,’ she told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.

‘There are very normal discrepancies on these numbers.

‘They are relatively small numbers, but this was a pilot.’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the figures showed Labour’s ‘incompetence’, while Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp branded it a ‘lamentable admission of failure’. 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda scheme – which was designed to deter small boat crossings and save lives – as one of his first acts in office.

Labour ministers later signed the ‘one in, one out’ deal with the French in an attempt to get on top of soaring Channel crossings – which last year hit the second-highest annual total since the crisis began in 2018.

Ms Mahmood told LBC: ‘It was designed to try to prove this new model of working with the French could work.

‘There are practical issues around how quickly you can detain people and get them on a plane and move them out to France.

‘We’ve actually sped up removals to France and then taking people in.

‘It started very small and very slowly, because the French authorities and us were concerned about whether we could physically handle implementing the pilot and whether we had the right infrastructure in place.

‘The numbers will grow.’

More than 21,000 small boat migrants have reached Britain across the Channel since the deal was first announced in July.

Migrants sent back to France are housed in state accommodation centres but are not detained, which means they are free to come and go.

Several have already been found to have returned to Britain after being deported.

Ms Mahmood told the programme: ‘One of the first problems we ran in to was we couldn’t find enough people to bring in to Britain through the new route because there wasn’t enough knowledge.

‘You have got to compete with organised immigration crime to get your messages out.

‘We have more people in centres in France waiting to come over.’

Opposition leader Ms Badenoch said on X, formerly Twitter: ‘This incompetent Labour government summed up in a policy: the ‘one-in-one’ out deal with France results in 69 MORE illegal immigrants coming to the UK.

‘The solution: Vote Conservative. Leave the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights]. Deport all illegals on arrival.’

Shadow Home Secretary Mr Philp said: ‘This is a lamentable admission of failure by the Home Secretary.

‘The government scheme has resulted in a net inflow of 70 immigrants.

‘And worse than that, they have only removed 281 illegal immigrants when 41,000 arrived last year.

‘The chances of an illegal Channel migrant being removed under this scheme is virtually zero.’

He added: ‘It’s no surprise that illegal immigrants continue to flood across the Channel on this Home Secretary’s watch.

‘She has no control of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel whatsoever.

‘The only way to stop this is to exit the ECHR and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. But the Home Secretary is too weak to do that.’

It comes after France’s human rights advisor said police must stop using rubber bullets and tear gas to prevent small-boat migrants sailing to Britain.

Claire Hédon, the country’s highly influential Defender of Rights, said in a report that tactics used on the beaches of Calais and Normandy are ‘disproportionate’ and risk harming the thousands of young men flooding into Britain.

Her recommendations were branded ‘crazy’ and raised fears Paris may breach its agreement with the Labour government to take more robust action against sea crossings.

In her 18-page report, Ms Hédon wrote: ‘The objective of preventing departures is understandable given the danger of the crossing, and law enforcement plays a protective role, but this cannot be done at any cost.

‘The use of intermediate force weapons endangers people.’

She said the use of ‘flash ball’ guns that fire rubber bullets and riot-control tear gas should be ‘excluded…when the sole purpose of the security forces is to prevent people from boarding a boat’.

The Defender of Rights acts as a security forces watchdog and her advice is frequently implemented by the notoriously risk-averse French Government.