LONDON – Labour’s ‘one in, one out’ deal with France turned to farce as it emerged a man deported under the scheme has come back to Britain on a small boat.
Home Office sources confirmed the unnamed Iranian first arrived on August 6 – the first day the French deal was in force – and was removed from Britain on September 19.
However, he skipped a migrant shelter in Paris, where he had been housed and headed back to the northern French coast.
There, he boarded a dinghy back to the UK, arriving on Saturday – less than a month after he was kicked out.
Border officials identified him as a returning migrant and he is now being held in a British immigration removal centre.
The ludicrous to-and-fro journey highlights further serious flaws in the ‘one in, one out’ deal agreed between Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron.
When it was first unveiled in the summer, senior officials were unable to give an explanation of what would prevent deported migrants heading straight back to the channel, saying only that they would be subject to the French immigration system.
The Daily Mail understands the Home Office is now trying urgently to return the back-and-forth migrant to France again.
He was the third migrant to be removed under the scheme, after an Indian man the on September 18 and an Eritrean earlier on September 19.
Since Labour’s returns deal came into force on August 6, 11 298 small boat migrants have reached Britain.
Only 42 migrants have been sent back under the French treaty, including the man who has now returned.
A further 23 migrants have been allowed into Britain under the terms of the deal, which allows them to ‘regularise’ their status. Most are expected to claim asylum.
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