More deportation flights planned for Labour’s disastrous ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme took off without a single migrant on board again today.
A scheduled Air France flight from London Heathrow this morning departed with no Channel migrants aboard.
And migrants were also absent from another aircraft this afternoon which had previously been pinpointed by a French charity as a Home Office removals flight.
Today’s flights followed a similar pattern to the previous two days, when scheduled deportations failed to materialise.
It came after an Eritrean man who arrived in Britain by small boat five weeks ago won a High Court legal challenge to delay his removal under the scheme.
The unnamed 25-year-old had been scheduled to be aboard this morning’s 9am Air France flight to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport.
His successful challenge has opened the floodgates to a series of copycat cases by migrants selected for the deportation scheme.
About half of the 92 migrants reported to be in Home Office custody are expected to bring legal claims, legal sources said, by deploying similar human rights and ‘modern slavery’ grounds.
Air France’s service to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport pictured on the apron at London Heathrow airport this afternoon. The Airbus A220-300 took off with no migrants aboard.
It could leave Labour’s returns deal in legal limbo for months.
An unknown number of other removals are also thought to have been blocked by separate legal actions, often lodged at the last minute.
Migrants being taken back to France are expected to be escorted by Border Force staff or those working for Mitie, a company hired by the Government to help with removals.
But the fully booked flight, which took off at 9am from London, had a number of seats left empty throughout economy and business class.
Later, Air France’s 3.20pm departure from Heathrow also took off with no migrants or escorts obviously aboard.
French pro-migrant charity Auberge des Migrants, which is campaigning against the ‘one-in, one-out’ scheme, said earlier this week it had been told deportations were due to take place aboard this flight.
The Home Office has refused to discuss any details of its attempts to deport the migrants.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who predicted in the Daily Mail earlier this week how Labour’s scheme would face a ‘slew of legal challenges’, said it was now ‘clearly dead’.
‘Not a single migrant has been removed, yet thousands more continue to arrive,’ he said.
‘This plan is clearly dead.
‘Vexatious human rights and modern slavery claims have ended it before it even started.’
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – who scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of his first acts in office – previously claimed his agreement with French president Emmanuel Macron would see migrants ‘returned to France in short order’.
Labour was repeatedly warned the European Convention on Human Rights, which is enshrined in domestic law by Labour’s Human Rights Act, would prove to be a massive stumbling block.
However, the PM has insisted Britain will never leave the human rights treaty.
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.
Yesterday’s High Court case by the Eritrean migrant heard he claims to be a victim of ‘modern slavery’ and would be ‘destitute’ if the Home Office sent him back to France.
Lawyers for the man, who was granted anonymity by the court, argued his deportation would risk multiple human rights breaches.
He told the Home Office he and his mother travelled to Ethiopia when he was a young child, and that he was trafficked from there to Libya in 2023.
The man then made his way via Italy to France, and arrived in Britain by small boat across the Channel on August 12 after his mother paid £1,000 to smugglers.
The following day during an asylum screening interview with the Home Office he was asked if he had been exploited, and replied ‘no’, court papers showed.
But a few days later he lodged a claim under UK modern slavery laws alleging he had been exploited in Libya.
His barrister Sonali Naik KC, a former chair of human rights group Liberty, told the court there was ‘a serious issue to be tried’ about whether the man would face destitution.
However, it was the migrant’s modern slavery claim which proved crucial in persuading the High Court to block his removal.
The emergency hearing was told the organisation which examines the claims would not be able to carry out its work if the applicant was abroad.
Mr Justice Sheldon said he was granting an interim injunction which would bar the Home Office from deporting the man for 14 days.
The judge said: ‘It seems to me there is a serious issue to be tried with respect to the trafficking claim and whether or not the Secretary of State has carried out her investigatory duties in a lawful manner.’
The PM’s official spokesman yesterday denied that the blocking of the first two flights meant the system was ‘a shambles’, or that ministers were powerless against the courts.
‘France is a safe country and we are expecting the first flight to take off imminently,’ he told reporters.
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 – are a massive blow for the Government as it comes under intense pressure 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.
It is believed the migrants planned to be deported to France are currently being held at Harmondsworth Removal Centre, near Heathrow.
Any who are finally deported will then be taken to a French government processing centre, known as a ZAPI.
The ultra secure ‘waiting zone’ can accommodate up to 160 people at one time.
The building, which is used as an alternative for migrant hotels, has an outdoor space where asylum seekers can exercise, a canteen, a children’s room and a television room.
Each migrant will have their own bedroom with family members and friends allowed to visit.
Once entering the ZAPIs, cameras are confiscated from detainees and mobile phone use is limited.
Most individuals remain in the centre for an average of three weeks where they will then either be granted entry to France, sent back to their country of arrival or held on criminal charges.
Up to 10,000 people pass through the ZAPI at the Charles de Gaulle airport every year.
