Dominic CascianiHome and Legal Correspondent and
Tom McArthur
Reuters
The first flight carrying a cross-channel small boat migrant has landed in Paris, under the UK-France agreement.
The man, an Indian national, was removed from the UK on Thursday morning on an Air France plane.
The government had been facing fresh pressure over the returns agreement after the temporary blocking of the deportation of a man on modern slavery grounds.
The arrival in France, confirmed by the Home Office, comes a little over a month since the countries agreed a year-long pilot “one in one out” scheme of exchanges of migrants in the hope it will help to deter small boat crossings.
“This is an important first step to securing our borders,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said.
“It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you”, she added.
Meanwhile the government is expected to launch an appeal later aimed at limiting the time migrants have to provide evidence to challenge their removal.
Further deportation flights are planned this week and into next week, the Home Office said.
Another flight may potentially leave later on Thursday, the BBC understands.
The Home Office also said the first arrivals from France through the new asylum route are expected in the UK in the coming days.
“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,” it added.
Mahmood earlier vowed to fight “vexatious, last-minute claims” after the High Court intervened this week in the case of an Eritrean man who argued, after arrival in the UK by small boat last month, that he was a victim of modern slavery just hours before his flight was due to take off.
But the UK’s independent anti-slavery commissioner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “deeply concerned” about the home secretary’s words.
Eleanor Lyons said that suggesting the system was being abused created a “tool for traffickers to use with those victims that they are exploiting”.
The “one in one out” deal is intended to act as a deterrent against migrants attempting to make the treacherous English Channel crossing in small boats.
It proposes that, for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant with a strong case for asylum in the UK will come in return.
Under the treaty, the UK can immediately detain anyone who crosses the English Channel and, within around two weeks, agree with the French authorities to return the individual.
The aim of the plan is to make people think twice about turning to smugglers because of the risk that they will be sent back.
There is no suggestion from either government that the plan will, on its own, smash the cross-channel trade.
Crucially, the exchange scheme could reduce the number of people going into repurposed hotels because the incoming individuals will have already been assessed as having a need to be given asylum, meaning they can find a home and get a job.