More than 25,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year (Image: Getty)
Migrants with “made up” human rights claims can avoid being sent back to France under Sir Keir Starmer’s deal with Emmanuel Macron. The new treaty enforcing the “one in, one out” deal between London and Paris came into force on Tuesday.
Under the agreement, France will be able to 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 “clearly unfounded” human rights claims will be allowed to stay in the UK until they have exhausted all their legal challenges.
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Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This deal is likely to be completely unworkable and will be ruthlessly exploited by human rights lawyers to prevent people being returned to France.
“Even a clearly unfounded or made up human rights claim will stop a return to France while it goes through a lengthy court process.
“This deal has no numbers in it – presumably because they are so small. Returning just 6% of illegal immigrants, as reported, will have no deterrent effect whatsoever – because 94% get to stay.
“And the deal says that France will not provide any information at all about those they are sending to the UK – so they could be criminals or terrorists and we wouldn’t know.
“This is a bad deal, which won’t work. No wonder this government has presided over the worst Channel crossing figures in history.”
Mr Philp added: “It’s exactly what we’ve been warning about – a bureaucrat’s dream and a lawyer’s paradise set to prevent people ever being returned to France.”
More than 25,000 migrants have crossed the Channel this year in record time, up 50% compared to last year.
The UK will initially send about 50 migrants back a week under the proposed agreement. In exchange, the UK will receive the same number of migrants who have family members already in the UK.
Migrants who have previously attempted to cross the Channel will be ineligible under the scheme.
But asylum seekers that lodge human rights claims will be inadmissible, under the proposal.
The Treaty, published on Tuesday, states: “The United Kingdom confirms that at the time of their transfer that person will not have an outstanding human rights claim (which shall include a third country national with a human rights claim that has been certified under United Kingdom law as clearly unfounded).”
The document also reveals that Paris has refused to provide any details about the migrants they are planning to send to the UK,
It bluntly states: “For the avoidance of doubt, under no circumstances shall personal data be transferred from France to the United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron hope the deal will end the Channel migrant crisis (Image: Getty)
“As for transfers from the United Kingdom to France, the communication of personal data shall only take place if such communication is necessary for the implementation of this agreement.”
On Tuesday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper refused four times to state whether migrants would be returned this month.
Labour has been urged to recall Parliament to discuss the Channel migrant “emergency” after the number of arrivals surged past 25,000.
Insisting only that failed asylum seekers will be detained “in a matter of days”, Ms Cooper added she wanted to see the first returns “in a matter of weeks”.
Asked repeatedly when the first migrants will be sent back, the Home Secretary said: “The first detentions we want to take place in a matter of days and then we will be referring those cases immediately to France.
“There are then processes that we need to work through and we are ready to resist any legal challenge that comes forward as well.
“But we do want to see returns taking place in a matter of weeks. But we will need to work those processes through.”
Asked if returns would start in August, Ms Cooper said: “Again, we need to work those processes through, but we want to see the returns themselves take place as swiftly as possible.”
Ms Cooper refused to set a target number for returns, claiming that such information could benefit the smuggling gangs.
The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are a couple of things here. First of all we are not putting an overall figure on this programme.
“Of course, it will start with lower numbers and then build but we want to be able to expand it. We want to increase the number of people returned through this programme.
“But the reason for not setting out how many people it will be in a particular week or how many people on a particular day is because we know the criminal gangs will use this information, just like they use every other bit of information, in order to twist it, in order distort it and in order to make money.
“They will use it to plan when they send boats across. They will use it to drive the information, the advertising and the information that they use.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warned that the Channel migrant crisis is ripping Britain’s communities apart.
She said a surge in small boat arrivals is “not affordable” and could lead to more crime.
The Conservative accused Sir Keir and Ms Cooper of fuelling an “explosion in the use” of taxpayer-funded hotels for asylum seekers because they have “failed to stop the boats”.
Mrs Badenoch dismissed claims successive Tory governments were to blame for the record asylum backlogs and accused Labour of “rubber-stamping all of the applications”.
She said: "If you were to speak to the mothers who were protesting outside the hotel in Epping, they will tell you that a crime had been committed and that's what they're protesting."
Ministers should not be clamping down on those "expressing legitimate concerns", she signalled, adding: "We need to make sure that we address those concerns, and what we're not seeing from the Government is any kind of addressing of those concerns.
"We need to stop the boats. It is not affordable, it is not good for community cohesion, it is not good for crime, it is costing us a lot of money. We need to get a grip on this issue as quickly as possible."
But Mrs Badenoch dismissed claims Tory plans to end the small boats crisis had led to a record asylum backlog.
There were 50,976 outstanding appeals as of March, which is almost double the number compared with 2024 and seven times higher than in 2023, figures show.
It is the highest the backlog has ever been and comes on top of the almost 79,000 asylum claims awaiting an initial decision.
The Tory leader said: "What Labour are doing is just rubber-stamping all of the applications and saying they're processing.
"We need to make sure that when people come to our country illegally, they are deported.
"That is our policy. And what we're seeing right now is an explosion in the use of these hotels because Labour have failed to stop the boats.
"The reason why they've failed to stop the boats is because they have scrapped the only deterrent that this country had, which was the Rwanda plan."
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GB News halted as Starmer is dealt humiliating three-word blow over migrant crossings
Yvette Cooper refuses to say how many migrants have been detained in car crash interview
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Labour claim foreign criminals will be deported immediately from the UK
Labour has abandoned border control in favour of political convenience
POLL: Should Yvette Cooper resign TODAY over migration chaos?
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POLL: Should Keir Starmer drag migrant boats back to France?
Keir Starmer breaks silence on migrant deal hours after French escort more boats to the UK
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Starmer's migrant deal crumbles on day one as French navy runs 'taxi service' for dinghies
Watch the moment the first migrants set to be sent back to France were detained
British taxpayers will be forced to pay for all travel costs for migrant transfers
Keir Starmer's small boats deal is about as robust as death-trap dinghies migrants use
First migrants detained under Keir Starmer's migrant deal as French 'taxi boats' to UK
GB News halted as Starmer is dealt humiliating three-word blow over migrant crossings
Yvette Cooper refuses to say how many migrants have been detained in car crash interview
Keir Starmer's migrant deal is so bad it's actually making it EASIER to get to UK
Keir Starmer torn apart on TalkTV as Reform MP rages 'They're laughing at us!'
First migrants to be returned to France set to be detained within days
Keir Starmer's migrant crisis one-for-one deal with France comes into force
Labour claim foreign criminals will be deported immediately from the UK
Labour has abandoned border control in favour of political convenience
POLL: Should Yvette Cooper resign TODAY over migration chaos?
Moment BBC Breakfast erupts in migrant clash as Tory MP shuts down Naga Munchetty
GB News halted for major migrant 'breaking news' in most humiliating blow to Labour yet
Farage rages at Starmer for throwing away taxpayer cash with ￡100m migrant gang fund
POLL: Should Keir Starmer drag migrant boats back to France?
Keir Starmer breaks silence on migrant deal hours after French escort more boats to the UK
Trump signs deal to deport migrants to Rwanda in total embarrassment for Keir Starmer
Starmer's migrant deal crumbles on day one as French navy runs 'taxi service' for dinghies
Watch the moment the first migrants set to be sent back to France were detained
British taxpayers will be forced to pay for all travel costs for migrant transfers
Keir Starmer's small boats deal is about as robust as death-trap dinghies migrants use
First migrants detained under Keir Starmer's migrant deal as French 'taxi boats' to UK
GB News halted as Starmer is dealt humiliating three-word blow over migrant crossings
Yvette Cooper refuses to say how many migrants have been detained in car crash interview
Keir Starmer's migrant deal is so bad it's actually making it EASIER to get to UK
Keir Starmer torn apart on TalkTV as Reform MP rages 'They're laughing at us!'
First migrants to be returned to France set to be detained within days
Keir Starmer's migrant crisis one-for-one deal with France comes into force
French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said: “The agreement between France and the United Kingdom to prevent the tragedy of Channel and North Sea crossings will take effect tomorrow.
“It establishes an experimental mechanism with a clear objective: to dismantle the smuggling networks.
“It marks a first step in addressing a challenge that calls for the mobilization of the entire European Union, building on the EU-UK summit of May 19.”
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