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A 25-year-old man from Eritrea has won a last-minute legal challenge that stopped his planned removal to France under the UK’s new “one in, one out” migrant return scheme.

He had been due to fly back to Paris on Wednesday, part of the pilot agreement between London and Paris where for every person returned to France, the UK accepts one refugee with a genuine case for protection.

But his lawyers told the High Court that he may have been a victim of modern slavery, and argued the Home Office had rushed its decision without giving him time to provide more evidence.

Although the Home Office insisted he could have claimed asylum in France, the judge ruled there was a “serious issue to be tried” over whether officials had properly investigated his trafficking claim. For now, the court has blocked his removal and given his lawyers 14 days to make further submissions.

The case could set the tone for how others caught up in the returns scheme challenge their removal, with lawyers likely to argue on similar grounds.

Government response

The Home Office said the ruling would not derail the wider policy and that the first returns would still go ahead soon. But critics seized on the injunction as a sign of problems to come.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said it proved the need for “tougher laws” to stop the UK becoming “a refuge for anyone unhappy in another country.” Reform leader Nigel Farage added that the scheme would not cut migration overall, arguing: “One in, one out still means numbers keep rising.”

The man’s journey

Court documents show the Eritrean man left Ethiopia two years ago and reached Italy in April 2025. He later travelled to France, where charities including the Red Cross supported him. Eventually, his mother paid smugglers $1,400 (£1,024) to help him cross the Channel to the UK in a small boat.

More than 30,000 people have already crossed the Channel this year – the earliest point on record that the figure has been reached since records began in 2018.

The deal itself

The UK–France “one in, one out” arrangement was announced in July by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Under it, France agrees to take back people whose asylum claims in the UK are withdrawn or deemed inadmissible, while Britain agrees to accept recognised refugees who have not tried to cross the Channel.

Although some migrants had already been told they would be placed on scheduled flights to Paris, no one has yet been removed under the scheme. Sources told the BBC that several planned departures have already been delayed while further legal representations are considered.

Political backdrop

The case has reopened debate about the UK’s relationship with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has repeatedly been a flashpoint in immigration policy. Conservatives are expected to push for withdrawal at their party conference next month, while Starmer has made clear he wants to keep the UK within the treaty.

That leaves his government under pressure to prove that the returns scheme can work without breaching international obligations. Photo by Bjørn Erik Pedersen, Wikimedia commons.