‘One in, one out’ asylum seekers say scheme has caused them severe psychological harm
Migrants detained under Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship “one in, one out” return plan with France said they were left without support, leading to a “serious mental health crisis” at the UK’s largest removal centre.
Detainees at the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre, near Heathrow airport, have written to UN bodies, investigators and human rights organizations calling on them to investigate detentions that they say are “punitive, humiliating and designed to break us psychologically”.
Nearly 80 asylum seekers in the area have backed the document, which claims they have been treated unfairly by the Home Office since their arrival in the UK. Immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and other countries said “people were devastated” and in mental distress, “isolated or punished rather than treated.”
Letter reported for the first time Guardexplains that the men were detained with criminally convicted persons at Harmondsworth immigration centre. He continues: “We are not criminals. Our only action was to seek asylum.”
The letter claims that all detainees’ asylum requests were rejected and that they did not have access to lawyers.
As of December 2025, 193 people had been repatriated to France under the one in, one out programme. The regulation stipulates that people coming to the UK on small boats will return to Paris in exchange for different asylum seekers from France.
Around 195 people have been brought legally to the UK from France under the scheme, according to government data.
The plan came under criticism after immigrants deported to France under the agreement returned to England on a small boat.
Asylum seekers who crossed the Channel to the UK were interviewed when they were “vulnerable and ill” and people were “tired, scared and traumatized”, according to detainees.
They also say cell phones have been taken away and replaced with basic phones, making communication with family members difficult, if not impossible.
The report says: “We are disconnected from social media, the news, and the outside world. Families do not know where we are or how we are treated. Letters are delayed. Visits are rejected. This isolation wears us out emotionally.”
Touching on the health problems of immigrants, the letter says: “Those in mental distress are isolated or punished instead of receiving treatment. Fear and despair are constant. We wake up every day and ask, ‘What is our crime?'”
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A total of 41,472 migrants crossed the Canal in small boats in 2025; This is a 13 percent increase from 2024. But that wasn’t as high as the 2022 peak, when nearly 46,000 people made the perilous journey.
The Harmondsworth protest comes after the government announced new powers will allow immigration officers to seize migrants’ mobile phones and sim cards.
Officers will begin receiving devices from people at the Manston processing center in Kent to download data they believe will help them gather intelligence on people smugglers.
The Home Office said officers must act on specific intelligence when they decide to seize a mobile phone.
The new powers given to law enforcement are designed to speed up investigations and follow the passage of Labour’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill into law in December.
A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not recognize allegations about conditions at Harmondsworth. We consider the welfare of people in our care to be of the utmost importance.”
“Protecting the UK border is our top priority. Our landmark one-in, one-out plan means we can now send small boat arrivals directly back to France – which is at the heart of the criminal gangs’ business model.”
