Analysis by think tank Migration Watch UK has found that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deportation scheme with France would take almost three hundred years to deport migrants who arrived since the 2024 general election.
Amid a record pace of illegal migrants landing on British shores under the left-wing Labor Party government, as Prime Minister Starmer’s flagship plan to “crush the gangs” failed to reduce arrivals, London and Paris agreed in July on the so-called “one in, one out” system in a bid to deter illegal Channel crossings.
However, the system, under which boat migrants are returned to France in exchange for asylum seekers with supposedly strong claims to refugee status in Britain, has so far failed to significantly increase deportations, with only dozens having been returned to France under the framework.
According to Migration Watch UK calculations, only 42 boat migrants were returned to France in the first 76 days of the program. This compares to the 59,348 illegal migrants who have successfully crossed the Channel since the general election on July 4 last year.
The think tank estimates that, based on current trends, it would take the British government 294 years to return illegal immigrants who arrived under the leadership of the Labor Party to France, provided no new migrants arrive in Britain for the rest of the time.
In comments provided to Breitbart London, Migration Watch president Alp Mehmet said: “This is not a legacy to be remembered with pride, Prime Minister. Besides, if we receive one migrant for every return, we will have the same number, plus new arrivals, to deal with.
“The public has had enough of the lies and bluster the gangs lap up while getting high on champagne.”
Furthermore, the Interior Ministry admitted on Wednesday that one of the first illegal immigrants returned to France under the “one in, one out” program had already returned to Britain illegally aboard another small boat launched from the French coast.
Address the left Tutor According to the newspaper, the migrant said he wanted asylum in the UK, while claiming he had been a victim of modern slavery by smuggling gangs operating in northern France and therefore feared for his life after being returned to the country.
He claimed to have fallen “into the trap of a human trafficking network in the forests of France before moving from France to the United Kingdom for the first time”.
The anonymous migrant claimed that traffickers forced him to work, mistreated him and threatened to kill him with a gun if he protested.
However, he said he did not disclose his allegations of mistreatment to the UK Home Office when he arrived in the country illegally, out of “shame”.
The French Interior Ministry has rejected the idea that migrants returned under the program would face any danger if sent back to France, given that they benefit from state-funded housing while a decision is made to return them to their country of origin.
A UK Home Office spokesperson said: “We will not accept any abuse of our borders, and we will do everything in our power to remove those who do not have a legal right to be here. People who are returned under the pilot and who subsequently attempt to re-enter the UK illegally will be removed.”
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