UK court clears the way for deportation of Eritrean asylum seeker

After losing a High Court request to have his removal temporarily thwarted, an Eritrean man who has been fighting to stay in the United Kingdom is set to be deported to France.

The 25-year-old Eritrean man crossed the English Channel in August for legal reasons, and he was scheduled to leave on Wednesday as part of a “one in, one out” pilot agreement reached between the UK and France in July.

However, pending a thorough examination of his trafficking claim, the High Court of London on Tuesday granted him an interim injunction preventing his removal.

The man claimed to have fled Eritrea in 2019 due to forced conscription before moving to France. Before heading to the UK, he spent about three weeks in an encampment known as “the jungle” in Dunkirk, on the English Channel.

The High Court agreed at a hearing on Thursday, stating that there was “no serious issue to be tried in this case.” The UK’s Home Office objected to the attempt to temporarily halt the man’s removal.

The man’s allegations of trafficking were inconsistent, according to the judge, Clive Sheldon.

The Home Office could determine that his credibility had been severely harmed and that his account of trafficking couldn’t be reasonably believed, the judge said.

The man will be deported to France on Friday at 6:15 a.m. (GMT) at 5:15.

UK implements new plan

The Home Office, the UK interior ministry, was testing out its new plan to deport an Indian man to France as the court ruled against the Eritrean man. The man, who boarded a small boat in the UK in August, took a commercial flight to France on Thursday.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed that this deportation provided “proof of concept” that the agreement is successful, and that this deportation was the first under the partnership between the UK and France.

At a press conference alongside US President Donald Trump, Starmer stated, “We need to ramp that up at scale, which was always intended under the scheme.”

People who enter the UK are then returned to France under the “one in, one out” agreement between the UK and France, and the UK accepts an equal number of recognized asylum seekers with family ties.

The plan is defended by Downing Street, calling it “fair and balanced” and aimed at reducing irregular migration.

The scheme has been condemned by UK charities.

According to Griff Ferris of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, the “cruel policy that targets people who come here for safety” was a “grim attempt… to appease the racist far-right.”

Anti-immigrant sentiment is growing.

While Starmer’s government has made stopping small boat crossings a top priority, anti-immigrant sentiment has remained high in the UK.

Over the weekend, far-right activist Tommy Robinson organized a protest in central London that involved up to 150, 000 demonstrators. A glass bottle that appeared to have smashed into a police horse at one point caused serious injuries to four police officers during the demonstration.