Asylum seeker sent back to France under Starmer’s flagship ‘one in, one out’ scheme returns to Britain in small boat

A man sent back to France under Keir Starmer’s flagship “one in, one out” return deal has returned to the UK on a small boat.

It is understood the man is currently being held in an immigration detention center and the Home Office is trying to expedite his deportation case.

The deal, announced with great fanfare by the Prime Minister at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in the summer, means that for every small boat migrant returned across the Channel, one asylum seeker will be allowed to legally enter the UK from France.

At the time, Sir Keir said it was a “groundbreaking moment” that would turn the tables on people smugglers, but on Wednesday a Downing Street spokesman said there was “no magic solution” to tackling immigration.

The man, who was initially taken to France as part of the deal and returned on a small boat, told the Guardian he was a victim of modern slavery at the hands of traffickers in northern France.

“If I felt France was safe for me, I would never return to England,” he told the newspaper.

Earlier this week, the Home Office announced that a further 16 people who had entered the UK illegally had been extradited to France, bringing the number of people deported under the deal to 42.

More to follow…