Britain has returned the first illegal migrant to France under a "one in, one out" agreement to remove people who arrive on small boats, the interior ministry said on Thursday, after legal challenges had stalled the start of the scheme.
Deeply unpopular British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron in July agreed to the pilot scheme, under which Britain deports undocumented people arriving in small boats to France, in return for accepting an equal number of legitimate “asylum seekers” with British family connections.
Britain's Home Office said that a man who had arrived by small boat in August had been removed on a commercial flight, and that further flights were due to take place this week and next.
"This is an important first step to securing our borders. It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you," Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement.
The government said that the first arrivals from France through the new legal route were expected in the coming days.
Starmer's government faces mounting pressure to stop small boats taking “asylum seekers” across the Channel from Europe, a route by which more than 30,000 people have come so far in 2025.
The new policy has been delayed by legal action. On Tuesday, London's High Court ruled one “asylum seeker” who arrived in Britain on a small boat could temporarily not be removed to France pending a full legal challenge.
Mahmood reiterated she would, "continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts," and the government said it was reviewing modern slavery legislation, "to prevent its misuse".
(Reporting by Alistair Smout and Catarina Demony; editing by Michael Holden and Alexandra Hudson)