The first migrant deportation flight for just one asylum seeker was cancelled at the last minute after charities threatened legal action, The Telegraph reported.
Sir Keir Starmer’s so-called “one in, one out” deal is now in doubt, it is believed the Home Office will try and place the migrant on another Air France flight on Tuesday.
However, the second migrant flight left with non on board after human rights lawyers were able to have him removed before take-off.
A total of 31,026 illegal migrants has crossed the English Channel so far this year on small boats.
It is believed that at most 10 people will be on each flight and Air France is receiving a high number of calls, emails and messages on social media asking the airline “not to agree to collaborate with the interior ministry and not to agree to deport these people on these flights.”
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Starmer and the Home Secretary Shaban Mahmood are wanting to increase the number of migrants to be deported to deter more from crossing the Channel.
The “one in, one out” deal is to last for a year, however there is a break clause, French Interior Ministry source told French media it is “still very experimental nature of this agreement” and Paris “We will be able to terminate the agreement if we do not see any benefit of it.
The Tories have said Starmer’s deal is not workable and Mahmood is “just as ineffective as the last one.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp fumed, “Labour has failed to deport a single illegal immigrant yesterday or today as they had promised – the flights both took off without a single migrant on board.
“Only yesterday I told the new Home Secretary they need to completely repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration matters, but she refused and this is the predictable result.
“This Labour government is too weak to control our borders.
“Their 16-in-one-out deal would see 94% of illegal immigrants crossing the channel allowed to stay, and they are so weak and incompetent that they can’t even make that happen.
“The new Home Secretary is just as ineffective as the last one.
The government’s latest gimmick is a joke.
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