Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been accused of putting lives at risk by the anti-slavery watchdog.
Ms Mahmood said the use of modern slavery legislation to block deportations of migrants made a “mockery of our laws”.
The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Eleanor Lyons condemned the Home Secretary’s comments.
The Home Office will lodge an appeal on Thursday against a High Court decision temporarily blocking the deportation of an Eritrean man under the UK-France migrants returns deal.
On Tuesday, the court had granted the man a “short period of interim relief” and given him 14 days to make representations to support his claim that he was a victim of modern slavery.
Ms Mahmood is carrying out an urgent review of the Modern Slavery Act to assess whether it is open to abuse.
She said: “Migrants suddenly deciding that they are a modern slave on the eve of their removal, having never made such a claim before, make a mockery of our laws and this country’s generosity.
“I will fight to end vexatious, last-minute claims. I will robustly defend the British public’s priorities in any court. And I will do whatever it takes to secure our border.”
But Ms Lyons, whose position was created by the Modern Slavery Act, lashed out at the Home Secretary.
When migrants use our courts to delay and prevent removals with last-minute and disingenuous claims, it's no longer a system that works for the British people.
— Home Office (@ukhomeoffice) September 17, 2025
We can't accept this and will fight these claims every step of the way. pic.twitter.com/wjNIF5gNhn
She said 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”.
Ms Lyons told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The Home Office are the deciders in this country on whether someone is a victim of modern slavery. They have the final decision-making.
“Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords select committees have looked at this issue in recent years, and they found there’s no misuse of the system.
“It puts vulnerable lives at risk when the Home Secretary is claiming that is the case.”
Senior Treasury minister James Murray rejected suggestions that Labour had forgotten its values as he faced questions from broadcasters about the Government response.
“No, not at all. What’s driving this is what’s important to the British people,” the Chief Secretary to the Treasury told Sky News.
“As a Government, we’re responding to what’s important to people in the UK, and people have said, and people are right to feel angry about the level of illegal migration.
“People are right to feel they want hotels to close. People are right to feel they want the Government to do more on this, and that’s exactly why we’re doing more on this.”
The Government is yet to deport migrants under the returns deal, which came into force last month and was agreed with Paris in July as part of efforts to deter rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel.
On Tuesday, lawyers acting on the Eritrean man’s behalf said the case “concerns a trafficking claim” and argued he faces a risk of “destitution” in France.
The Home Office defended the case, saying it was reasonable to expect the man to claim asylum in France.
Mr Justice Sheldon said on Tuesday evening: “It seems to me there is 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.”
He said based on the arguments made in court, it did not seem to him that there was a “real risk” the man would “suffer destitution if he was to be returned to France”.
The judge added that the case “should come back to this court as soon as is reasonably practical in light of the further representations that the claimant… will make on his trafficking decision”.
The Home Office has previously indicated the first returns under the deal with France would take place this week, but no attempts to send people back across the English Channel have yet been successful.
Reports suggested the first flights planned to remove those back to France under the deal departed without any migrants on board on Monday and Tuesday.
Charity Detention Action – currently supporting 28 people detained under the UK-France returns deal – said that four of them had removals directions scheduled between Monday and Wednesday, which were all cancelled or deferred with no further date set.
Two other people they support had been notified of their removal scheduled for later this week or early next week.
The human rights charity also said their most recent figures showed seven people they support had indicators of human trafficking, but that only one had been referred to the National Referral Mechanism.
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.
France has reportedly said it will only accept a small initial contingent of deportations, while the UK has said it hopes to increase numbers over the course of the scheme in an effort to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.
