Illegal migrants have been warned they will be returned to France “again and again” after a man deported re-entered the UK. Children’s minister Josh MacAlister maintained that the Government’s one in, one out scheme is working, despite an Iranian national crossing the Channel for a second time. He told Times Radio: “I think it shows the scheme working, because this guy came here.
“He shouldn’t have come here. He paid somebody, a smuggling gang, to cross the Channel. He was stopped, he was detained, and he was returned to France. He came again. He paid someone again, and he will be returned to France again.” This sends a clear message to those who cross the Channel in small boats that “you will be deported”, Mr MacAlister said.
He added: “You will go back to France. The money you’ve spent will be wasted. And if you do it again and again, you will be returned again and again.”
The Iranian national was detained and the Government intends to send him back to France. He came back to the UK on October 18 and was sent to France on September 19.
He told the Guardian he was a victim of modern slavery at the hands of smugglers in the north of the country, but Mr MacAlister rubbished this claim as “ludicrous”.
Over 36,900 migrants have come to the UK in small boats so far this year – more than the total for the whole of 2024 (36,816), according to Home Office figures.
On Wednesday alone, some 220 people made the journey across the Channel.
The one in, one out deal between Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron is aimed at deterring small boat crossings by deporting anyone deemed not to have a right to stay in Britain.
It means people who arrive in the UK by small boat can be detained and returned to France, in exchange for an equivalent number of people who applied through a safe and legal route.