Deportation flights under Sir Keir Starmer’s ‘one in, one out deal’ have been cancelled for a second day after legal challenges and protests, as the policy, already criticised as hopelessly weak, descends into farce. The Telegraph has more.
The Home Office had planned to return migrants on commercial Air France flights from Heathrow to Paris every day this week.
However, flights on Monday and Tuesday have left without any migrants on board after last-minute legal challenges and protests from charities.
The delay is a blow for the Prime Minister as he seeks to put the new deal into action to serve as a deterrent to Channel crossings.
More than 31,000 migrants have crossed to England in 2025 – the highest number at this point in the year since the first arrivals in 2018.
Last month, the Border Force detained almost 100 migrants who had been earmarked for deportation under the one in, one out deal agreed between Sir Keir and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in July.
The Telegraph disclosed on Monday that the first migrant to be returned under the deal had been removed from his Air France flight, but the French had been informed that he would be flown out on Tuesday. However, his flight has been delayed by at least another day.
Plans to fly out a second migrant on Tuesday were also foiled after his lawyers claimed that his experience of being tortured and trafficked should prevent him from being returned to France.
British and French charities started a campaign to bombard Air France with phone calls, emails and social media messages urging them “not to agree to collaborate with the interior ministry and not to agree to deport these people on these flights”.
Lawyers believe migrants’ cases could be challenged through their right to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights if they have relatives in the UK. Challenges could be lodged on the grounds that they have been trafficked or suffer mental ill health.
The Home Office has to give “generous” time extensions to the migrants to take legal advice on challenging their deportation as a result of a ruling against the Tory government’s thwarted Rwanda deportation scheme.
Lawyers said the flight delays meant the legal process was taking longer than the Government anticipated.
Most of the migrants are understood to be from countries with high asylum grant rates but others are also from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Sudan, which account for the highest number of crossings.
As part of the agreement, a similar number of asylum seekers from France will come to the UK. The first flight into Britain is scheduled for Saturday, the Telegraph understands.
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