Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ migrant policy is facing a fresh legal challenge in the High Court this afternoon.
A small boat migrant, identified only by the initials SKG, is opposing his removal to France under the new deal.
It comes just two days after a 25-year-old Eritrean migrant succeeded in having his deportation postponed for 14 days after launching a similar challenge.
The latest legal action risks throwing the Government’s returns deal with France back into disarray, just hours after the first migrant was successfully removed.
The Indian man was flown from London to Paris this morning, it is understood.
As a result of the first deportation taking place, Britain will begin accepting other migrants from France as early as Saturday.
The Home Office has been accepting online applications from migrants who are currently in France to come here, providing they have not ‘previously been removed from the United Kingdom’ and do not pose a ‘national security or public order risk’.
The number of migrants who will be admitted to Britain will equal the total who have been removed by that stage.
Like those deported to France, they are likely to come here aboard a scheduled passenger flight.
The first deportation comes after the Home Office suffered three days of aborted attempts under the deal signed in July by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: ‘This is an important first step to securing our borders.
‘It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you.
‘I will continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts.
‘The UK will always play its part in helping those genuinely fleeing persecution, but this must be done through safe, legal, and managed routes – not dangerous crossings.’
But her Tory shadow Chris Philp said: ‘Since Labour announced their returns deal 9,909 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel, and we are supposed to celebrate one solitary return?
‘No-one is fooled by tough talk from Labour.
‘They will never do the hard work needed to tackle the lawfare that blocks removals.
‘The truth is Labour is run by human rights lawyers – Keir Starmer and Lord Hermer – who have always sided with open borders activists over security and control.’
The first high-profile legal challenge on Tuesday forced ministers to temporarily abandon attempts to remove the Eritrean man, who had been due to be aboard a 9am flight yesterday.
The case led Ms Mahmood to condemn small boat migrants who lodge last-minute legal challenges.
She said it ‘made a mockery of our laws’ when they tried to dodge deportation by claiming they were victims of ‘modern slavery’.
Ms Mahmood’s criticism of last-minute legal challenges were the most robust acknowledgment yet made by a Labour minister of how they are deployed to frustrate deportation measures.
But since the new returns deal with France was announced the Government has been repeatedly warned it was vulnerable to human rights and modern slavery claims.
On July 10, the day the policy was launched, the Daily Mail questioned senior Home Office figures about the possibility of legal challenges – but officials refused to speculate on how they would be handled.
This week’s High Court ruling on the unnamed Eritrean migrant paved the way for copycat claims by others at risk of deportation under the scheme.
About half of the 92 migrants reported to be in Home Office custody are expected to bring claims, legal sources said, by deploying similar human rights and ‘modern slavery’ grounds.
It could leave the majority of cases lined up for the returns deal in legal limbo for months.
The day after his arrival in Britain on August 12 the Eritrean migrant said he had not been exploited on his way here.
But soon after he submitted a modern slavery claim alleging he had been forced to work unpaid in Libya while on his way to Europe.
The High Court granted an injunction barring his removal for 14 days while the modern slavery application is scrutinised.
Today’s hearing involves a migrant, who can only be identified by the initials SKG, who is due to be removed from the country early tomorrow.
The High Court was told the man left Eritrea in 2019 and came to Europe via Libya, where he also claims to have been exploited.
Sonali Naik KC, representing SKG, said he was an ‘alleged trafficking victim’.
She said: ‘The serious issue to be tried is whether this is the appropriate way for the Secretary of State to conduct litigation with vulnerable individuals.’
The Home Office is opposing the bid.
Separately, it is also due to appeal against Tuesday’s ruling in a bid to have the length of the injunction reduced so the first Eritrean man can be deported.
The Home Secretary has also launched an urgent review of the Modern Slavery Act to assess where it is currently open to misuse.
The Prime Minister – who scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of his first acts in office – has previously insisted Britain will never leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which many migrants deploy in their legal claims.
Before he entered politics, barrister Sir Keir edited a legal manual on how to interpret the new human rights laws shortly after they came into force, describing how they had ‘enormous potential’ and represented a ‘new way of thinking’ about the law.
Since the ‘one in, one out’ deal came into force on August 7, more than 5,400 small boat migrants have reached Britain.
The delays – and the prospect of more challenges ending up in court – have placed huge pressure on the Government as it struggles to tackle the Channel crisis.
So far this year 31,026 migrants have arrived, up 38 per cent on the same period last year.
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper was moved sideways to the Foreign Office in this month’s reshuffle after she failed to make progress.
