A small boat migrant was deported to France today under the UK’s ‘one in, one out’ deal after losing a High Court bid to have his removal temporarily blocked.
The Eritrean man said he was an ‘alleged trafficking victim’ and his barristers asked for an ‘interim relief’ because deportation would risk multiple human rights breaches.
The migrant, who cannot be named, arrived in the UK on a small boat last month and brought a claim against the Home Office yesterday, ahead of his scheduled removal.
But the man’s bid failed – and it was confirmed this morning that he was on an Air France flight from London Heathrow Airport, which left for Paris at 6.39am.
This makes him the second deportation under the Government’s ‘one in, one out’ scheme– following the first involving an Indian man yesterday morning.
But it comes as hundreds of migrants tried to cross the Channel at the same time this morning, with photos showing them boarding dinghies near Gravelines in Frances.
Today, the Eritrean man – who appeared to be aged in his 20s – was sat in the final row of the plane, dressed in a white hooded top and black Adidas tracksuit trousers.
Flight AF1381 was completely full apart from the seat next to the migrant, who was accompanied by three Home Office staff including two security guards.
The migrant, who had short cropped hair and a short beard, stared out of the window at the bright orange sunrise as the plane took off.
He accepted a cup of tea with sugar and a packet of Breton biscuits from the cabin crew, while a Home Office official was seen filling out a complicated document.
During the migrant’s court case, Mr Justice Sheldon said the man claimed he was ‘forced to flee Eritrea in 2019 because of forced conscription’ and spent time in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Libya.
He travelled to France, where he stayed in Paris for around a week, and the man claimed that he was ‘homeless and destitute, and constantly feared for his life’.
The man then went to Dunkirk, where he stayed in the encampment known as ‘The Jungle’ for around three weeks, without claiming asylum in France.
He arrived in the UK via a small boat and was detained by the UK Border Force on August 6, before being told his asylum claim in the UK was inadmissible on August 9, Mr Justice Sheldon said.
Barristers for the man, who cannot be named, had argued that the decision was ‘procedurally unfair’ as he had not been given sufficient opportunity to put forward evidence supporting his claim that he was an ‘alleged trafficking victim’.
In a ruling, Mr Justice Sheldon said ‘there is no serious issue to be tried in this case’ and that the man gave differing accounts of his allegations of trafficking.
‘It was open to (the Home Office) to conclude that his credibility was severely damaged and his account of trafficking could not reasonably be believed,’ the judge added.
He also said there was ‘significant public interest in favour of the claimant’s removal’.
Meanwhile hundreds of migrants tried to cross the Channel this morning as the deportation took place.
At least one inflatable dinghy full of young men made its way out to sea from Gravelines beach, north-east Calais, at daybreak this morning.
As the boat came close to shore, people waded through waist-high water towards it and a child was passed aboard before it went out to sea.
In the town itself at 5.30am, a group of 40 young men appeared from a quiet side street carrying an inflatable boat over their heads before launching it into a canal.
Police officers watched on from the bank as the driver of the boat struggled to keep it in a straight line.
Earlier in the night, a group of men formed a human chain to help haul people out of the mud after a failed attempt to launch a boat in the canal.
It comes after another Eritrean man successfully asked the court on Tuesday to temporarily block his deportation after the same judge found there was a ‘serious issue to be tried’ over whether his removal was lawful amid claims he had been trafficked.
In that case, the court heard that the national referral mechanism (NRM) – which identifies and assesses victims of slavery and human trafficking – found that the man had likely not been trafficked, but offered him time to make further representations.
Mr Justice Sheldon said there was ‘still room for further investigation into the trafficking claim’.
Following Tuesday’s hearing, the Home Office revised its policy on reconsidering modern slavery decisions, so that anyone being removed to a safe country who wants to appeal against an NRM decision will be unable to do so.
Instead, they can launch a legal challenge from another country, such as France.
The latest deportation will come as a relief to the Home Office amid pressure to tackle the small boats crisis, with Donald Trump suggesting Sir Keir Starmer should use the military.
The US President said during his state visit to the UK that the Prime Minister ‘should take a very strong stand’ on immigration which is ‘really hurting him badly’.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the first return showed people crossing the Channel that ‘if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you’.
She said she would ‘continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts’.
The returns agreement had faced growing scrutiny after reports of flights for removals being cancelled earlier this week.
Ministers agreed the pilot scheme with the French government in July as part of efforts to deter the record number of arrivals by small boat.
Hours after the first removal yesterday under the agreement, Mr Trump urged Sir Keir to involve the military.
At a joint Chequers press conference with the Prime Minister, the president highlighted his own record in securing the US borders and suggested the UK faced a similar challenge.
He said: ‘You have people coming in and I told the Prime Minister I would stop it, and it doesn’t matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what means you use.
‘It destroys countries from within and we’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country.’
The American leader later said of Sir Keir in a Fox News interview: ‘I think he should take a very strong stand on the immigration. It’s really hurting him badly.’
