1 of 2 | Around 60 migrants cross the English Channel on a small boat on March 6, 2024. To cut down on what the British government describes as illegal and unsafe crossings of the English Channel, the country has entered into an agreement with France to remove migrants. File Photo by Tolga Akmen/EPA
British immigration officials on Thursday removed a man who arrived in the country by small boat, the Home Office announced, the first deportation under the country’s so-called “one in, one out” deal with France.
The Indian national was sent to Paris on board an Air France plane, BBC News reported.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the removal was an “important first step to securing our borders.
“It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: If you enter the U.K. illegally, we will seek to remove you,” he said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to a deal in July that would see the two countries exchange migrants on a one-to-one basis. France would accept the return of one migrant who arrives without permission in Britain in exchange for each migrant with a legal asylum claim that Britain takes in.
The agreement went into effect Aug. 6.
Britain was expected to deport three other migrants earlier in the week, but each of their tickets was canceled in response to legal challenges against removal, The Guardian reported.
The High Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the removal of an Eritrean man who appealed his deportation, saying he was a victim of human trafficking. The Indian man deported Thursday had threatened legal action against his own removal, but the flight went forward, The Guardian reported.
“I will continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts,” Mahmood said Thursday.
“The U.K. 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.”
U.S. President Donald Trump offered Starmer some advice on immigration during a joint news conference Thursday in London.
“I told the prime minister, ‘I would stop it, and it doesn’t matter if you call out the military, it doesn’t matter what means you use,'” Trump said.
