Labour has removed 26 small boat migrants since the launch of its ‘one in, one out’ deal with France – while more than 10,000 have reached Britain.
The Home Office confirmed 19 people who arrived by small boat have been sent back in the last week.
It brings the total removed to France to 26 since the launch of the programme.
Following an ‘inward’ agreement established with President Emmanuel Macron’s administration over the summer, an additional 18 migrants have made their way from France to the UK.
Meanwhile, 10,040 small boat migrants have reached Dover by small boat since the scheme launched on August 6.
It included 1,075 on Wednesday this week alone.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as one of his initial actions in office, discontinued the Conservative party’s Rwanda asylum agreement, which aimed to discourage crossings and preserve lives.
Migrants arrive aboard a Border Force vessel at Dover on Wednesday, when a total of 1,075 arrived across the Channel by small boat
On Wednesday, migrants donning lifejackets disembarked from the Border Force catamaran, Typhoon, after being rescued from dinghies in the middle of the Channel.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood trumpeted the numbers removed from Britain under the new deal with France.
‘The difference is stark. The previous government’s Rwanda initiative took years, incurred hundreds of millions of pounds, and didn’t manage to remove a single person,’ she commented.
‘In a matter of weeks, we’ve returned 26 through our historic agreement with France.
‘We must put an end to these dangerous crossings which put lives at risk and money in the pockets of criminal gangs.
‘With flights now commencing to France and increasing, a firm message is being sent: entering illegally will risk detention and deportation, so reconsider that journey.’
The Home Office has shared images of migrants being returned to France, marking the first occasion a charter flight is used for removals as part of the scheme.
An unidentified migrant boards a Home Office charter flight to France under the new ‘one in-one out’ scheme
The migrants were seen being taken to an undisclosed airport last week for the charter flight to France, in images released by the Home Office today
Under the new scheme a total of 26 small boat migrants have been sent back to France including 19 aboard two charter flights over the last week
Earlier the Home Office confirmed there were 1,075 arrivals on Wednesday aboard 15 dinghies, the third highest number so far this year.
It brings the total since the start of the year to 35,476, up 33 per cent on the same period last year.
The total number of small boat migrants to have reached Britain since Labour came to power now stands at 58,718.
Wednesday’s huge number of Channel arrivals was the fourth day so far this year to top 1,000.
People traffickers have begun using deadly ‘mega dinghies’ to send migrants on their perilous journey across the Channel.
At the end of last month one of the massively overloaded inflatables – at around 40ft – was photographed on the Channel for the first time.
Labour claims the ‘one in, one out’ scheme will undermine people traffickers’ tactics and ‘smash the gangs’ by persuading would-be migrants that crossing the Channel may be fruitless.
However, the programme has been slow to take off after being mired in legal difficulties and even when fully up and running is expected to remove only around 50 migrants a week.
The all-time record for daily arrivals is 1,305, set on September 3, 2022.
