Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said the first return of a migrant to France under the Government’s “one in, one out” scheme shows people crossing the English Channel that “if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you”.
A man who arrived in the UK by small boat in August was put on a flight to France on Thursday morning, the Home Office said.
It added that further flights are scheduled to take place this week and next week.
Ms Mahmood said: “This is an important first step to securing our borders. It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you.
“I will continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts.
“The UK will always play its part in helping those genuinely fleeing persecution, but this must be done through safe, legal and managed routes – not dangerous crossings.”
The move came as the Government faced fresh pressure over the migrant returns agreement, amid reports of 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.
Some 31,026 people have arrived in the UK after making the dangerous journey so far this year.
Reacting to the first removal, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “Since Labour announced their returns deal, 9,909 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel, and we are supposed to celebrate one solitary return?
“Labour must come clean. Was this removal voluntary? How many are we taking from France? And how much taxpayers’ money has already been wasted on empty flights?”
He added: “Only the Conservatives have a clear plan to deport all illegal arrivals, close the loopholes exploited by activist lawyers, and put in place a real deterrent through our Deportation Bill. Without that, the crossings will never stop.”
Under the Government’s 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 first arrivals to come to the UK under the new safe and legal route are expected to come to the UK in the coming days.
Immigration think tank British Future have argued in a report published on Thursday that if the UK-France scheme was scaled up by 10 or 20 times, it could reduce the number of people crossing the Channel by 75% in the next three years.
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” before 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.
Ms 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.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Ms Mahmood’s words “have a real-life impact on victims of exploitation, who may now be more scared to come forward and talk about what’s happened to them”.
On Thursday, charity Detention Action, which is currently supporting 28 people detained under the UK-France returns deal, said their most recent figures showed seven people had indicators of human trafficking, but that only one had been referred to the National Referral Mechanism.
