ANOTHER two deportation flights took off with no migrants today in a major blow to Starmer’s ‘one in, one out’ deal.
An Air France plane was due to depart from London Heathrow this morning but their seats were empty.
The SunTwo more Air France flights took off without migrants today[/caption]
Gary StoneLabour’s flagship ‘one in, one out’ deal has been thrown into chaos[/caption]
�2025 Peter MacdiarmidDowning Street has insisted that it expects deportations to begin ‘imminently’[/caption]
There were also no migrants in a second flight set to arrive in France this afternoon.
It comes as Labour’s flagship ‘one-in-one-out’ deal was thrown into chaos after a migrant won a bid to have his deportation blocked in a last-minute High Court legal challenge this week.
Human rights lawyers made an urgent application against the Home Office this afternoon on behalf of an Eritrean asylum seeker.
The unnamed 25-year-old man – who arrived on a small boat last month – was due to be removed from the UK on a flight at 9am tomorrow.
But his counsel Sonali Naik KC argued that he faced a “real risk of destitution” if he was deported.
She told the court that a third of asylum seekers in France are not accommodated and that they are only given a daily allowance of €7.50.
She also claimed that he was “vulnerable” and had been a victim of trafficking after fleeing Eritrea.
Ms Naik sought a temporary block on the man’s removal until his case could be fully heard.
Kate Grange KC, for the Home Office, defended its plans – saying there was a “strong public interest” in allowing the deportation to go ahead to deter small boat crossings.
She argued that the new agreement between the UK and France “pursues an important public objective”.
Ms Grange said: “Serious injury and death, including of children, from small boat crossings in the English Channel is a grave social and political concern at the present time.”
But High Court Judge Mr Justice Sheldon ruled that more time was needed to investigate whether the asylum seeker was a victim of trafficking.
He granted “interim relief” – a temporary block on the man’s removal.
He told the court: “There’s 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 migrant has been invited to make further representations to the national referral mechanism decision – which identifies and assesses victims of slavery and trafficking – within the next 14 days.
The case is expected to return to court on a date yet to be set.
Despite this, Downing Street insisted that it expects deportations to begin “imminently”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “As we’ve been saying the last couple of days, we have actually made the first detentions under the scheme and expect the first returns to take place imminently, but for obvious reasons we’re not going to get into a running commentary on operational details ahead of that.”
Meanwhile, the Tories earlier this week raised concerns that legal cases would be brought ahead of the planes taking off.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “The government is too naive to realise this.
“They have not scrapped the Human Rights Act in immigration matters or, indeed, the use of modern slavery claims as a pretext to stay in Britain.
“What we should do is deport every single illegal immigrant immediately on arrival.”
But the government has faced major criticism since the deal came into effect last month, some 5,400 small boat migrants have arrived on UK shores.
Migrants have been told by text message that they will be sent back on Air France planes and will be accompanied by security guards.
Those being sent back to France have been given five days’ notice of the Home Office‘s intention to deport them, The Times reported.
But this will mean that anyone will be able to seek legal advice and potentially fight the decision.
The migrants will be taken from Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, which is close to Heathrow airport.
Commercial planes are being used to keep costs at a minimum rather than charter private flights.
One of the messages sent to a migrant due for deportation tomorrow, seen by The Times, said: “You will be removed from the UK on Air France Flight (AF) 1681 which departs from Heathrow Terminal 4 at 09:00 on 16/09/2025 and arrives in Paris, France at 11:20 on 16/09/2025.”
It’s expected that fewer than 100 migrants will be sent back to France as part of the pilot scheme.
But this year alone, some 31,026 migrants have arrived in the UK on small boats.
THE SUN SAYS: Labour must ditch stunts in favour of proper, bold action to end the boats crisis and end the farce
Stop the stunts
AFTER years of delighting in legal attacks on Tory plans to stop the boats, Labour ministers yesterday got a taste of their own medicine.
The Government repeatedly insisted its “one-in, one-out” scheme with France wasn’t a gimmick.
Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also promised important work had already been done to prevent legal challenges derailing it.
Yet, with depressing inevitability, an Eritrean migrant who claimed he would be “destitute” if sent back across the Channel yesterday had his removal blocked by the High Court.
The desperate deal with France always risked being undermined by the weaponisation of human rights law.
Once again left-wing lawyers have made a mockery of ministers who pathetically trumpeted returning a tiny handful of migrants — even as 31,000 have arrived in one year on their watch.
Just yesterday, Donald Trump hailed another month of ZERO illegal entries into the US.
Meanwhile, Brits have endured 9,909 crossing just since the one-in, one-out “deterrent” was announced.
Having scrapped the Rwanda scheme and presided over record arrivals, the Government cannot delay any longer.
It must ditch the stunts in favour of proper, bold action to end the human rights stranglehold over our borders, and bring this farce to an end.
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