Britain's High Court has ruled against a "one-in, one-out" migrant deportation policy, a significant setback for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's efforts to control illegal Channel crossings. The court backed the appeal of five Channel migrants who successfully argued that their deportation was unlawful.
The migrants, who claimed to be victims of trafficking, challenged a change in rules that removed their right to appeal deportation rulings unless they were found to be victims of human trafficking. Their legal team argued that fundamental rights could not be overridden for the sake of expediency or accelerated removals.
This ruling will likely enable more asylum seekers to contest their deportations under the terms of the agreement with France. The deal stipulates that for every migrant arriving by small boat and deported to France, another individual entering through legal channels will be admitted to the UK. To date, 921 small boat migrants have been deported to France under this treaty, with 896 individuals admitted to the UK in return.
Since record-keeping began in 2018, over 200,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel illegally. The successful legal challenge is expected to create further complications for the government's immigration policies.