A charity backed by the Home Office could hold the key to thwarting Sir Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal with France, after it produced a guide to help migrants beat the new policy.
Under current government guidelines, all migrants in detention must be provided with a “notebook” produced by Bail for Immigration Detainees (BiD), a charity that provides legal advice to people being held in removal centres awaiting deportation.
According to the Telegraph, BiD, which has received more than £400,000 in Comic Relief donations and which benefits from charitable tax relief, has produced a detailed blueprint which outlines the key steps detainees would need to take in order to potentially get around the new policy.
Included among the crucial information are template letters that migrants can use to argue their case, along with a breakdown of legal and human rights arguments that could be used to fight potential deportation.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hit out at migrants on Wednesday as she said they were“making a mockery” of Britain’s laws while promising to take a hardline stance against anyone that attempted to make a last ditch appeal against the controversial “one in, one out” policy.
Channel migrants were pulled off deportation flights on Wednesday in what marked the third day in a row of opposition, after the Government was hit by a spate of legal challenges on behalf of 40 of the 100 Asylum Seekers detained by the Home Office last month.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary decried the challenges, as he said: “It’s a complete farce that this charity is publishing a ‘how-to guide’ for illegal immigrants to make potentially fraudulent claims to avoid removal to France. No wonder the Government’s latest gimmick has already collapsed into chaos.”
Following the discovery of the leaflets, the Home Office last night insisted that leaflets from the charity giving its contact details had been distributed previously under an agreement with the Tory government. It is understood that this agreement has now ended, and no such arrangement is in place.
The department said: “The Home Office does not provide any leaflets relating to this charity to individuals in Immigration Removal Centres.”
In the pamphlets shared to migrants by BiD, multiple avenues to avoid deportation are outlined, including instructions to “act quickly”, to “get a lawyer” and to “consider any high court action” if they discover they are due to be deported to France.
The leaflets also sign post to services available within detention centres, such as legal clinics and libraries full of contact details for charities and advocacy agencies that can help them to build their cases to stay.
Notably, each leaflet also provides three possible template letters to be used to argue their right to stay, including highlighting the reasons they could legitimately be able to fight a deportation. These include claiming they have “suffered torture or inhuman treatment”, “been trafficked”, have “mental health/physical problems” or have “family in the UK”.
The booklets, which span around 12 pages, also offer up key legal facts too, such as how to request details of whether the Home Office and French authorities have met statutory time limits at different stages of the deportation process. If certain actions aren’t undertaken within a set time frame, this can make a person ineligible for detention and subsequent deportation.
It says: “The UK-France Agreement sets very specific timeframes. You can ask the Home Office for information on what steps they have taken and when.
“If they are not acting within these timeframes or cannot provide evidence that they have done so, you can request to be released from detention.”
The BiD charity, which is entirely independent from the Home Office, has worked with the government for a number of years, in a bid to help as many migrants as possible.
In it’s own literature, the charity states that it resolutely opposes the government’s policy to “lock people up in order to make sure they do not disappear before they are removed from the UK”.
Instead, it says it believes “there are alternatives to detention which could still ensure that people stay in touch with the authorities”.
As a charity, BiD benefits from tax relief on donations and income, and has received support from various high profile organisations including: the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, The National Lottery Foundation and the Alan & Babette Sainsbury Charitable Foundation.
It also previously received £420,000 in grants between May 2016 and August 2023 from Comic Relief, however since then it has not received any further support from the bi-annual charity drive.
A spokesman for Comic Relief said: “Comic Relief does not currently fund Bail for Immigration Detainees.
“Between May 2016 to August 2023, Comic Relief funded Bail for Immigration Detainees with a grant totalling £420,000. The grant was used to support Bail for Immigration Detainees’ case work and outreach. There has been no further funding since August 2023.”