Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: An Indian national has become the first person to be deported from the UK under a new treaty with France, after arriving illegally on a small boat across the English Channel, according to a press release by the UK Home Office.
The migrant landed in Paris on an Air France plane. Under the deal, the UK can send back migrants who arrive illegally by boat, while accepting an equal number of people from France through a newly created safe and legal asylum route.
Reacting to the first migrant being deported under the scheme, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, “This is an important first step to securing our borders.”
“It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you”, she added. She added, “I will continue to challenge any last-minute, vexatious attempts to frustrate a removal in the courts. The UK will always play its part in helping those genuinely fleeing persecution, but this must be done through safe, legal, and managed routes – not dangerous crossings.”
Meanwhile, later on September 18 the High Court rejected an attempt to temporarily stop another migrant – an Eritrean man – being removed to France, paving the way for a flight to take off early on September 19, reported BBC.
In a ruling after a three-hour emergency hearing on September 18 evening, Justice Sheldon said there was no legal justification to delay the transport of the man to France. His lawyers had argued that he may have been the victim of trafficking and there had been assurances that the French would properly look after him.
The Eritrean man said he fled his home country in 2019 because of forced conscription – and he spent time in Ethiopia, South Sudan and Libya before coming to Europe, and eventually making his way to Dunkirk to try to cross to England – arriving on August 6.
His subsequent asylum claim was refused – as was his account that he should be protected in the UK as a victim of trafficking or slavery after officials concluded he had changed his story and could not be believed
