Two men have lost bids to temporarily stop their removal to France under the Labour’s controversial ‘one in one out’ scheme, court records show.
Anonymised as CES and CSG, the men asked the High Court court late on Wednesday last week to issue an urgent order stopping their planned removal early the following morning.
In separate judgments published today, Mr Justice Fordham refused the men’s claims, saying they had ‘no realistic prospect of success’.
The ‘one in one out’ agreement, made in July, sees France accept asylum seekers who crossed from its shores to the UK but cannot prove a family connection there.
The scheme agreed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron sees that for each one it takes, Britain grants asylum to another who has arrived from France.
However, Sir Keir is accused of failing the country on migration with the policy seemingly in tatters – after a migrant who was previously deported under the scheme returned to the UK on a small boat.
In the case of CSG, which was heard remotely last week, the judge said the man had ‘no viable claim’.
He continued: ‘Since the claim lacked legal viability and raised no triable issue, I refused interim relief and at the same time refused permission for judicial review.’
Also at a remote hearing on the same day for CES, Mr Justice Fordham rejected the man’s claims that his human rights would be breached because he would be in a period of ‘limbo’.
Dozens of young men crossing from northern France by dinghy. More than 60,000 have now arrived in the UK since Labour won power
He said: ‘The claimant’s difficulty in the present case is that the nature of the complaints put forward, and the body of evidence which has been adduced, comes nowhere near arguably rebutting the general presumption as to France’s Article 3 compliance.’
The judge’s decisions follow the failed bids of three other men this week, which similarly followed late-night urgent hearings.
Mr Justice Johnson said there was no evidence that the men would be at ‘real risk of immediate harm’ if they were returned to France.
It came as two significant milestones were passed this week when more than 100 new small boat migrants reached Britain.
The total number to have arrived since Labour came to power has now soared past 60,000.
And this year has seen the second highest annual number of small boat migrants since the crisis began nearly seven years ago, topping the 36,816 witnessed last year.
Since Labour’s returns deal came into force on August 6, about 11,400 small boat migrants have reached Britain.
Only 42 have been sent back, including the man who has now returned.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The Government’s gimmick returns scheme is descending into farce.
‘They can’t even ensure the handful of people they return to France actually stay there – and now this man has come back to the UK and is using a modern slavery claim to stay.
‘Only 42 people have been returned to France over a time when 10,000 have arrived. This is clearly no deterrent at all.
‘We need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to allow us to remove all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. But Labour is too weak to do that.’
A group of migrants were seen boarding a small boat towards the UK on Gravelines beach, between Calais and Dunkirk, at first light on Tuesday.
Roughly 30 were pictured scrambling aboard the dinghy before it set off towards Dover, while French police vehicles on the sand dunes tried to deter potential crossings.
Earlier this week, it emerged an Iranian man deported under the ‘one in, one out’ scheme had come back to Britain on a small boat.
Home Office sources confirmed the unnamed Iranian first arrived here on August 6 – the first day the French deal was in force – and was removed from Britain on September 19.
But he skipped a migrant shelter in Paris, where he had been housed, and headed back to the northern French coast.
There he boarded a dinghy back to the UK, arriving on Saturday – less than a month after he was kicked out.
Border officials identified him as a returning migrant by biometric checks and he is now being held in a British immigration removal centre.
In an interview from a removal centre, the Iranian migrant at the centre of the farce told The Guardian newspaper: ‘If I had felt that France was safe for me I would never have returned to the UK.
‘When we were returned to France we were taken to a shelter in Paris. I didn’t dare to go out because I was afraid for my life. The smugglers are very dangerous.
‘I fell into the trap of a human trafficking network in the forests of France before I crossed to the UK the first time.
‘They forced me to work, abused me, and threatened me with a gun and told me I would be killed if I made the slightest protest.’
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was said to be furious when told of the Iranian’s back-and-forth journeys.
But yesterday she continued to blame the Tories for the deepening crisis and even boasted about ‘our historic deal with the French’.
She said: ‘The previous government left our borders in crisis, and we are still living with the consequences.
‘Our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.
‘But it is clear we must go further and faster – removing more of those here illegally, and stopping migrants from making small boat crossings in the first place.
‘I will do whatever it takes to restore order to our border.’
The Home Office is now trying urgently to return the migrant to France again. He was the third to be removed under the scheme.
Some 23 migrants have been let into Britain under the terms of the deal. Most are expected to claim asylum.
The Prime Minister scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda scheme as one of his first acts in office.
Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: ‘Migration Watch has warned time and time again that without proper deterrence or effective action against those crossing the Channel illegally, numbers would go on rocketing.
‘This is no way to control the border. The public have had enough of talk and gimmicks with no action.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We will not accept any abuse of our borders, and we will do everything in our power to remove those without the legal right to be here.’
