A migrant deported from the UK to France under Labour’s much-trumpeted ‘one-in-one-out’ deal has revealed he was smuggled back into Britain on a lorry. The testimony of the male asylum seeker appears to make a mockery of Sir Keir Starmer’s deal with the French for the so-called “one in, one out” arrangement – whereby for every person the UK sends back to France, we accept an equal number of asylum seekers.
As of April this year, 551 people had been returned through this arrangement, but if some of the migrants sent to France are secretly getting back to the UK, the figures could be misleading. Speaking to the Guardian newspaper the asylum seeker said he was aware of other migrants sent to France under the scheme who had simply come back to the UK.
He explained: “I’m not a bad person for the UK. I want to live in peace here, work legally and be safe. But people like me who are living underground can be forced into crime to survive.
“I came here to respect the rules of the country, not to break them, but the immigration rules here may force people like me to break the rules by doing things like working illegally.”
The migrant claimed he was caught by smugglers when he was deported to France and he had come back to the UK to escape their clutches. He said he was aware of at least 18 other men who had ignored the one-in-one-out deportation and returned to Britain illegally.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Anyone looking to return to the UK after being removed under the UK-France agreement is wasting their time and money. They will be removed again.
“Under this government, enforcement is up, asylum decision-making is up, removals are up and the backlogs and hotel use are coming down.
“Twenty twenty-five was a record year for tackling organised immigration crime, with disruptions up by more than a third on 2024. Under our returns agreement with France, we have deported more than 600 illegal migrants from British soil.”