Asylum seekers locked in detention centres as part of Labour’s “one in, one out” deal have said they had not heard of the scheme before arriving in the UK on small boats and were terrified of being returned to their home countries.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said the plan to send one small boat arrival back to France in exchange for accepting another to live in the UK would deter the thousands from crossing the Channel.
Since the first group of small boat arrivals were detained just over a week ago on 6 August, 2,363 people have crossed the Channel. More than 50,000 have crossed since Labour came into power.
“I was so happy to survive the journey across the Channel and to reach land in the UK. Then the Home Office locked me up. I’m still in a state of shock,” said one man from Eritrea, speaking to the Guardian by phone from a detention centre.
“We did not understand what was happening to us when the Home Office moved us from Manston [the former military base in Kent] where we were processed, straight to this place which is like a jail.
“When we asked why they were bringing some who arrived on the same boat as me here but letting others go free, they did not answer us. They just said it was because we crossed the Channel illegally.”
The man said that neither he nor anyone he knew in northern France knew anything about the “one in, one out” deal and was not sure it would prevent people from continuing to try to cross the Channel.
“I am very frightened here. There are people who have committed crimes in the UK locked up with us. We have done nothing wrong apart from trying to find a safe place.”
He claimed to have been trafficked and tortured when he passed through Libya on his journey from Eritrea. “I believe if I am sent back to France and the smugglers find me they will kill me,” he said.
A second man from Afghanistan also spoke to the Guardian from detention. He said: “The Home Office have just locked us in these rooms and said we cannot go from here. We are frightened of the dangerous criminals locked up with us. We are so afraid of what Home Office will do to us.
“The Taliban tried to kill me so I escaped from Afghanistan. I thought I was free when I reached [the] UK but instead I am in this prison. We knew nothing about the ‘one in, one out’ deal when we left France. I don’t know if it will stop people crossing the Channel.”
The Home Office says the first group of detainees are expected to be returned to France within three weeks, with the UK referring potential returnees to the French authorities within three days of their detention and the French expected to respond within 14 days.
A leaflet given to detainees by the Home Office says those returned to France may be offered a financial incentive by the French authorities to return to their home countries. It asks detainees to notify the Home Office if they are seriously ill or a victim of rape, torture or violence, although officials are supposed to screen for these vulnerabilities before detaining people.
Karris Hamilton, an advocacy manager at Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group, which is supporting those earmarked for forced return to France, said: “We are extremely concerned about the wellbeing of the men being detained for the ‘one in, one out’ scheme.
“Those we have spoken with so far are in acute distress and many have been victims of torture, exploited by traffickers on their journeys or victims of modern slavery in Libya.
“People are finding it difficult to eat and sleep due to being in a prison environment, not knowing how long they will be there and fearing that they may be taken back to France. We are very worried that we will see a rise in self-harm, suicide attempts and hunger strikes due to this.”
