A second person has been deported under the government’s ‘one in, one out’ deal with France after an Eritrean man lost a legal challenge against his removal.
It comes a day after the first deportation of a migrant under the scheme, which came into force last month and seeks to remove those who crossed the English Channel back to the continent.
The government are coming under increased pressure to tackle the small boats crisis in recent weeks, with Donald Trump suggesting Sir Keir Starmer should use the military.
The US president said during his state visit to the UK that the Prime Minister “should take a very strong stand” on immigration, which is “really hurting him badly”.
The Eritrean man, who arrived in the UK on a small boat last month, was sent to France on Friday morning after losing a High Court bid to have his removal temporarily blocked.
The first removal was carried out on Thursday after a man who arrived in the UK by small boat in August was put on a flight to France
Just a few hours later, at a joint Chequers press conference with Starmer, the president highlighted his own record in securing the US borders and suggested the UK faced a similar challenge.
He said: “You have people coming in, and 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.
“It destroys countries from within and we’re actually now removing a lot of the people that came into our country.”
The US leader later said of Sir Keir in a Fox News interview: “I think he should take a very strong stand on immigration. It’s really hurting him badly.”
Under the ‘one-in-one out’ deal, those who arrive in the UK on a small boat will be sent back to France, in exchange for accepting asylum seekers who have a British link, such as family connections.
The Home Office said the UK “will accept legal migrants through a new safe route in the coming days”.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the first return showed people crossing the Channel that “if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you”.
She said she would “continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts”.
The returns agreement had faced growing scrutiny after reports of flights for removals being cancelled earlier this week.
Another Eritrean man successfully asked the High Court on Tuesday to temporarily block his deportation after the judge found there was a “serious issue to be tried” over whether his removal was lawful amid claims he had been trafficked.
But on Thursday, in the second legal challenge brought against the Home Office over the deal, the same judge refused the migrant’s application for interim relief ahead of a full legal challenge against the decision to deport him.
Barristers for the man, who cannot be named, had argued that the decision was “procedurally unfair” as he had not been given sufficient opportunity to put forward evidence supporting his claim that he was an “alleged trafficking victim”.
In a ruling, Mr Justice Sheldon said “there is no serious issue to be tried in this case” and that the man gave differing accounts of his allegations of trafficking.
“It was open to (the Home Office) to conclude that his credibility was severely damaged and his account of trafficking could not reasonably be believed,” the judge said.
He also said there was “significant public interest in favour of the claimant’s removal”.
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.
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