Keir Starmer humiliated as simply 11 migrants deported to France every week | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Keir Starmer’s flagship migrant deal was branded a “total farce” final evening after Shabana Mahmood admitted Labour has taken in additional individuals from France than they’ve deported.

The Home Secretary revealed 350 asylum seekers have arrived below the so-called one-in-one-out deal, whereas simply 281 have been eliminated in its first six months.

This implies that, on common, simply 11 migrants have been despatched again every week for the reason that scheme got here into drive on August 6.

Ms Mahmood denied the removals deal is a “disaster”, insisting “the numbers will grow”, as she revealed immigration officers struggled to search out individuals to come back to Britain on the brand new authorized route.

Sources blamed the ‘discrepancy’ in numbers on a cancelled flight earlier this 12 months.

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp stated: “This is a lamentable admission of failure by the Home Secretary.

“The government scheme has resulted in a net inflow of 70 immigrants.

“And worse than that, they have only removed 281 illegal immigrants when 41,000 arrived last year.

“The chances of an illegal Channel migrant being removed under this scheme are virtually zero.

“It’s no surprise that illegal immigrants continue to flood across the Channel on this Home Secretary’s watch.

“She has no control of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel whatsoever. The only way to stop this is to exit the ECHR and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. But the Home Secretary is too weak to do that.”

Mr Philp stated: “This whole scheme has been a total farce from start to finish.

“It has no deterrent impact in anyway and has merely let much more migrants into the nation.”

More than 17,000 migrants have crossed the Channel since the scheme came into force on August 6. Some 21,000 have arrived by small boat since the deal was announced in July, heaping more pressure on the crumbling asylum system.

Labour had initially wanted to deport up to 50 migrants a week – but faced an influx of modern slavery claims and “one-off” operational issues “on the French side”.

Some 41,472 migrants crossed the Channel last year, up from 36,566 in 2024.

Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam informed the Express: “The Government’s ‘one-in-one-out’ deal with France is a total disaster, as the Conservatives said it would be.

“We’ve taken in 350 migrants from Paris but returned just 281, while over 17,000 small boat migrants have arrived since August. This isn’t border control; it’s capitulation to the gangs.

“Sending people back to France offers zero deterrence. Until the Government accepts that the only deterrent that will work is sending migrants back to their own country, or to a safe third country, Labour will never get control of our borders.

“Labour ditched Rwanda, refuses to set targets, and admits it can’t promote its weak legal route because smugglers dominate.

“This is an incompetent betrayal of our borders and taxpayers. We need swift removals and an end to this open-door farce.”

Reform UK Head of Policy Zia Yusuf said: “The newest woeful figures present that Labour nonetheless can’t be trusted to manage our borders.

“Their handling of illegal migration has been an unmitigated disaster, with arrivals pouring in at a higher rate than removals.

“Reform UK will leave the loophole factory that is the ECHR and will deport every single person who has arrived in the UK illegally.”

He added: “It was always a farce as we need mass deportations. Macron is laughing at us.”

Ms Mahmood told LBC’s Nick Ferrari both the British and the French were “concerned about whether we could physically handle” the exchanges.

This led to the scheme starting “very small and very slowly”.

Revealing the newest numbers, she stated: “We’ve had 350 people come into the country from France and 281 have been removed.
“There are very normal discrepancies on these numbers.

“They are relatively small numbers, but this was a pilot.”

Presented with claims that the scheme is a “disaster”, the Home Secretary insisted: “It was designed to try to prove this new model of working with the French could work.

“There are practical issues around how quickly you can detain people and get them on a plane and move them out to France.

“We’ve actually sped up removals to France and then taking people in.

“It started very small and very slowly, because the French authorities and us were concerned about whether we could physically handle implementing the pilot and whether we had the right infrastructure in place.

“The numbers will grow”.

Asked where she wants to get to, the Home Secretary refused to set a target over fears of upsetting the French.

She added: “We’re always in negotiations with our colleagues in France. It’s not just a goal for us, it’s whether they can handle the people coming in.

“One of the first problems we ran into was we couldn’t find enough people to bring in to Britain through the new route because there wasn’t enough knowledge.

“You have got to compete with organised immigration crime to get your messages out.

“We have more people in centres in France waiting to come over.”

Migrants sent back to France are housed in one of 3,000 state accommodation centre spaces for asylum seekers.

But they are not detained, which means they are free to come and go.

The scheme descended into farce when two migrants crossed the Channel for a second time after being removed, claiming they were at risk of being hunted down by people smugglers.

Under the agreement, France can hide crucial details about the asylum seekers they are sending to the UK.

They can also refuse to take any Channel migrant that poses a “threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any of the Schengen States.”

And small boat arrivals with human rights claims are allowed to stay in the UK until they have exhausted all their legal challenges.

The UK has just 14 days to detain and deport a Channel migrant to France.

Ms Mahmood admitted Labour’s plans to convert military bases into asylum accommodation will spark more anger and protests.

The Home Secretary defended the decision to move migrants into the Crowborough Training Camp last week, insisting it will help the Home Office close hotels.

She vowed to convert more Army bases into asylum accommodation, despite growing fears from locals over their suitability.

Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Crowborough on Sunday, warning of an increase in crime and fears over women’s safety – and Ms Mahmood warned she expected more protests to come.

She said: “I do perceive the power of feeling amongst residents in Crowborough, and I do know that as we develop the usage of army websites, we are going to see comparable points elsewhere.”

But she defended the move “as a result of the coverage that we inherited of housing asylum seekers in asylum lodges was the fallacious factor”.

She added: “And that has additionally triggered big strife throughout communities within the nation.”

She informed LBC: “I do perceive, however we do need to discover a answer. I believe transferring to bigger websites, fairly than lodges on excessive streets and rooted in native communities, I believe army websites current a greater answer.

“I think it deals with one of the pull factors. We know that organised immigration criminals are advertising the fact that you get a hotel room when you arrive in Britain as one of the ways that they’re luring people into the small boats in the first place.”

She added: “There are no easy answers here, and there is no one silver bullet. I wish that there were, that I could implement and make these problems go away overnight. But we will get out of asylum hotels.

“We do want an answer for housing asylum seekers.”

A Home Office spokesperson stated: “Under this pilot scheme, migrants who enter the UK illegally by small boat can be detained and returned to France.

“Numbers are currently imbalanced due to a one-off operational complication on the French side, which prevented a flight carrying migrants from the UK from being transferred to France. Subsequent flights have returned migrants to France and will continue to do so, which will restore balance in the numbers.”