“Pointless but Costly” Migration Scheme Hits Biggest Challenge Yet

Absolutely nothing is going right for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the moment. Least of all his “groundbreaking” ‘one in, one out’ migration deal with France, which has actually yet to get off the ground at all.

After ‘deportation flights’ took off on Monday and Tuesday without any migrants on board, thanks to last-minute legal challenges that again showed why Britain must ditch the ECHR for good, the High Court blocked the deportation of an asylum seeker to France. This removal—of a 25-year-old Eritrean man—was set to take place on Wednesday morning, but was stopped after a judge claimed he would be made “destitute” if returned to Paris.

The human rights claim—which MCC Brussels executive director Frank Furedi joked shows “enabling illegal migration is the role of the High Court”—is the first to have reached court over Britain’s deal with France. There is likely no one who believes it will be the last.

Not that this will bother Starmer too much, for whom Migration Watch chairman Alp Mehmet said the “pointless but costly” scheme was never really about securing Britain’s borders. He told europeanconservative.com:

This was never about fixing the problem, only about schmoozing Paris and the EU.

£100 million [€115.25 million] of our money wasted so that Sir Keir Starmer can cosy up to M. Macron. It’s a disgrace.

Mehmet added that at best, “the odd migrant may go back, but it won’t deter anyone.”

David Wood, former director general of immigration enforcement, also told the Telegraph that further such legal claims will likely mean “the Home Office [will not] get any flights off the ground for weeks, even months.”

The government continues to maintain that returns will begin “imminently.”