A family of three including a small child have become the first arrivals from France under Keir Starmer’s “one in, one out” deal, the Home Office has said.
The move follows the removal on Wednesday of the first four asylum seekers from the UK to France over the past six days, despite continuing legal challenges.
Under the deal, signed in July by Starmer and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK agreed to detain Channel asylum claimants and send them back to France in return for taking a similar number of asylum seekers with family ties to the UK.
The first rejected asylum seeker was removed under the deal last Thursday. The Indian national, who arrived in the UK on a small boat in August, was flown into Paris from Heathrow.
A fifth man, who is from Eritrea, has won a high court ruling placing a temporary block on his deportation. The Home Office was refused permission to appeal on Tuesday.
Three other people whose claims have been rejected – men from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran – have been flown to France.
The move comes days after Donald Trump told the prime minister to “call out the military” to stop small boats as the number of crossings had hit a then record high, and claimed illegal migration could “destroy” countries.
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, later said the Royal Navy could be called upon to tackle the crossings “if needed”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK-France deal is a historic agreement and these are critical first steps. We will continue to detain and remove those who arrive by small boat. And we will work with France to operate a legal route for an equal number of eligible migrants to come to the UK subject to security checks.”
More than 1,000 people reached the UK on small boats on Friday, bringing the total to more than 32,000 so far this year.
In a separate development, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has ordered a review into the multimillion-pound use of taxis by asylum seekers in hotels to transport them to medical appointments. The BBC reported on Tuesday that asylum seekers were being taken by taxi to GP or hospital appointments hundreds of miles away, with one running up a bill of £600 for one journey.
The broadcaster gained access to four migrant hotels where it claimed there appeared to be a “constant stream of cabs arriving and leaving”. After the report, Mahmood asked the Home Office to investigate the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers at the public’s expense.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The home secretary has asked the department to urgently look into the use of taxis to transfer asylum seekers.”
