First 'one in one out' migrant sent back to France, UK government says

The man, from India, was on board an Air France plane to Paris on Thursday.

It comes as the Government has faced fresh pressure over the migrant returns agreement, and reports of planned flights for removals being cancelled earlier this week.

This is the first deportation of a migrant who has crossed the English Channel since the returns deal came into force last month.

Ministers agreed the pilot scheme with the French government in July as part of efforts to deter the record number of arrivals by small boat crossings so far this year.

Under the deal, the UK will send back to France asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel, in exchange for those who apply and are approved to come to Britain.

The Home Office will also lodge an appeal on Thursday against the first legal challenge brought to the High Court against a migrant’s deportation under the scheme.

On Tuesday, the court granted an Eritrean man a “short period of interim relief” ahead of his 9am flight to France on Wednesday, and gave him 14 days to make representations to support his claim that he was a victim of modern slavery.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she will fight last minute claims against removals, and that the use of modern slavery legislation to block deportations made a “mockery of our laws”.

But her comments have been criticised by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, who said the claims put vulnerable lives at risk.