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A cabinet minister has confirmed that Keir Starmer’s migrant deal with France remains on track, even after a high court injunction blocked the removal of an Eritrean man.

Kendall stated that the last-minute injunction stopping the 25-year-old from being flown to Paris would not derail the “one in, one out” plan in the long term.

Earlier this week, a judge issued a temporary halt after the anonymous man claimed he was a victim of trafficking and risked destitution if returned to France.

She stated on Times Radio that she would not discuss operational details, but reiterated: “This is one person, and will not weaken the core principle of this deal.”

Judicial and Operational Challenges

Legal representative acting for migrants questioned the government’s “arbitrary and chaotic approach” to selecting individuals for removal, including cases where minors were wrongly identified.

Imogen Townley from Wilsons said: “There has been a random and unstructured approach to selecting people coming via small boats.”

She added that children were being caught up in the process despite guidelines state they must be exempted from deportation plans.

Accounts indicated that two 17-year-old boys were erroneously chosen for the scheme last month.

Context of the Deal

The Home Office last month held dozens small boat asylum seekers under the scheme, pledging to return them to France “within weeks.”

Initially, removals were planned on commercial flights from Heathrow to Paris during this week, but no one have been sent back as of yet.

Officials now face the possibility of additional court appeals and setbacks. Insiders confirmed that at least five more people were selected for removal this week.

Observers have drawn parallels the challenges to the former administration’s overseas deportation plan, which encountered repeated court hurdles. However, unlike that policy, the current challenges focus on individual cases rather than the entire program.

Details of the Deal

As part of the agreement, finalized in July by Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the UK agreed to detain small boat migrants and return to France. In return, France would take in a comparable quantity of asylum seekers with family ties in the UK.

Starmer said at the time: “There is no simple solution, but with a joint attempt, new tactics and a new level of determination, we can finally make progress.”

On Tuesday night, Mr Justice Sheldon who granted the short-term block explained that more time was needed to examine the man’s assertion that he was a possible trafficking survivor.

The court was informed that the man and his mother had gone to Ethiopia when he was a young child, and that he was later trafficked from there to Libya in 2023.

He claimed he had then made his way via Italy to France, and entered the UK by small boat on 12 August after his mother paid £1,000 to traffickers.

Future Plans

France has been planning to send asylum seekers to the UK over the weekend as part of the reciprocal agreement.

An official representative said: “The first migrants are still due to arrive in France from the UK this week. and the initial departures from France will begin on Saturday.”