Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of reducing migrants to “commodities to be exchanged” with his new ‘one in, one out’ returns deal with France.
Under the deal, for each small boat migrant sent back across the English Channel, an asylum seeker will be allowed to enter the UK from France under a legal route, the prime minister announced alongside Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.
But refugee charities and campaign groups have condemned the agreement, with the Migrants’ Rights Network accusing the government of conceding to “racist far-right narratives”.
Meanwhile, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) warned that the deal, which comes alongside new plans to intercept boats trying to cross the Channel, “will put more peoples’ lives at risk and cause more death and injury”.
And the International Rescue Committee (IRC) – the aid charity run by ex-Labour cabinet minister David Miliband – dubbed the agreement “yet another step in the wrong direction”.
The criticism comes as the Mayor of Calais warned the agreement would only draw more migrants to the north coast of France.
“Migrants are going to flock here, drawn by the attraction,” Natacha Bouchart said. “You get the impression that the national politicians do not give a hoot about the local politicians. We’re going to have to manage migrants who the British government will have chosen to return to France.”
Announcing the deal at a press conference alongside Mr Macron at the Northwood military base in west London, Sir Keir said it was a “breakthrough moment” which would “turn the tables” on the people smugglers who bring them here.
That was despite 573 migrants arriving in the UK in the hours before the agreement was announced, bringing the total number of arrivals so far this year to 21,690 – 54 per cent higher than at the same point last year.
Sir Keir and President Macron hope the deal will have a deterrent effect beyond the limited numbers involved in the pilot scheme.
No details have been given about how many people will be covered by the scheme, but reports from France have indicated it could initially be limited to around 50 a week – a small fraction of the weekly average this year of 782.
Pressed on the numbers of people who could be returned on Thursday morning, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper declined to say, telling Times Radio that the figures had not been “fixed”.
“The numbers are not fixed, even for this pilot phase that we are starting now.
“So this will be a programme that we roll out step-by-step, and we will provide updates as we go. But we are going to do this in a steady way.”
While some EU countries were initially concerned about the deal, Downing Street has insisted that the arrangements have been discussed with the European Commission.
“We don’t anticipate any issues”, a No 10 spokesperson said. “They have been clear that they want to support us to develop innovative, lawful solutions to help deal with this problem.”
The spokesperson added the government has “done a lot of work to make sure the system is robust to legal challenges”.
“We’re confident that this scheme complies with both domestic and international law”, they added.
Responding to the announcement, Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants’ Rights Network told The Independent: “The new ‘one in, one out’ deal reduces people seeking safety to commodities to be exchanged. The UK-France agreement does nothing to address the role of both states in displacing people and forcing them to make these dangerous journeys in the first place.
“The announcement concedes to racist far-right narratives around those who arrive in so-called ‘small boats’.
“Ultimately, this is a manufactured crisis, and pushing through increased enforcement, more militarised borders and ‘deterrence’ measures will only place people seeking safety at risk of more harm.”
Flora Alexander, the IRC’s UK director, said: “Prioritising tougher enforcement without creating safe, legal routes is both dangerous and ineffective. Evidence shows that these policies don’t stop people from seeking safety – they simply force them into more perilous journeys, putting lives at risk.”
She warned the deal risks “undermining the right to seek asylum” and accused ministers of “[ignoring] the root causes of why people cross borders in the first place”.
The Refugee Council was more positive, but urged the government to make sure the scheme is “implemented in a way that treats all those seeking asylum fairly and with respect and dignity”.
Enver Solomon, the organisation’s CEO, said: “Greater cooperation with France is welcome, but for any solution to work long term the government must adopt a comprehensive approach, including international cooperation, steps to prosecute the gangs and, critically, different safe and legal ways to reach Britain from conflicts such as those in Sudan and also for those with family members in the UK.
“Enabling refugee families to reunite is a vital path to safety and while this deal may support some families to reunite from France, we remain concerned about other proposals to restrict this lifeline.”
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
