Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has asserted that Keir Starmer’s migrant deal with France will continue, despite a high court ruling temporarily halted the deportation of an asylum-seeking man.
The minister emphasized that the last-minute court order stopping the 25-year-old from being flown to Paris will not undermine the “one in, one out” scheme in the long term.
Earlier this week, a court official granted a short-term halt after the anonymous man claimed he was a victim of trafficking and would face homelessness if sent back to France.
She stated on Times Radio that she would not comment on specific cases, but reiterated: “It involves one person, and will not weaken the fundamental basis of this deal.”
Judicial and Operational Hurdles
Legal representative representing migrants criticized the administration’s unplanned and disorganized approach” to selecting people for deportation, including cases where children were mistakenly targeted.
The lawyer from her firm commented: “There has been a random and chaotic approach in choosing people coming via small boats.”
She added that minors were included in the system even though guidelines state they must be explicitly removed from deportation plans.
Reports indicated that two 17-year-old boys were wrongly selected for the program last month.
Context of the Deal
The Home Office last month detained many Channel migrants under the scheme, pledging to return them to France “within weeks.”
Originally, removals were planned on regular air services from London to Paris throughout this week, but no one have been sent back so far.
Ministers now face the possibility of further court appeals and setbacks. Sources confirmed that at least several additional people were selected for removal this week.
Observers have compared the challenges to the former administration’s Rwanda deportation plan, which encountered repeated court obstacles. But, unlike that policy, the current appeals involve individual cases rather than the whole program.
Terms of the Deal
As part of the deal, finalized in July by Starmer and France’s president, the UK committed to detain Channel claimants and return to France. In exchange, France would take in a similar number of asylum seekers with relatives in the UK.
Starmer said at the time: “This isn’t a simple solution, but with a joint attempt, fresh approaches and a greater degree of determination, we can finally make progress.”
On Tuesday night, the judge who granted the temporary injunction stated that further investigation was needed to look into the man’s claim that he was a possible trafficking survivor.
The court was informed that the man and his mother had gone to Ethiopia when he was a young child, and that he was later trafficked from there to Libya in 2023.
He claimed he had then made his way via Italy to France, and entered the UK by dinghy on 12 August after his mother paid £1,000 to traffickers.
Next Steps
French officials has been preparing to send asylum seekers to the UK this Saturday as part of the two-way agreement.
A French interior ministry spokesperson said: “Initial returnees are still scheduled to come in France from the UK this week. and the initial departures from France will begin on Saturday.”