Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood denied the scheme had been a “disaster” as she also admitted Labour has taken in more asylum seekers from Paris than they have removed.
Just 281 migrants have been returned to France (Image: Getty)
Fewer than 300 Channel migrants have been deported to France under Keir Starmer’s one-in-one-out deal with Emmanuel Macron.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood denied the scheme had been a “disaster” as she also admitted Labour has taken in more asylum seekers from Paris than they have removed.
Ms Mahmood insisted “the numbers will grow” as she claimed immigration officials struggled to find people to come to Britain on the new legal route.
Almost 17,000 migrants have reached Britain since the “one-in-one-out” scheme began on Aug 6.
But Ms Mahmood told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast during Call the Cabinet: “We’ve had 350 people come in to the country from France and 281 have been removed.
“There are very normal discrepancies on these numbers.
“They are relatively small numbers, but this was a pilot.”
Presented with claims the scheme is a “disaster”, the Home Secretary insisted: “It was designed to try to prove this new model of working with the French could work.
“There are practical issues around how quickly you can detain people and get them on a plane and move them out to France.
“We’ve actually sped up removals to France and then taking people in.
“It started very small and very slowly, because the French authorities and us were concerned about whether we could physically handle implementing the pilot and whether we had the right infrastructure in place.
“The numbers will grow”.
But the Labour Home Secretary refused to set a target.
She added: “We’re always in negotiations with our colleagues in France. It’s not just a goal for us, it’s whether they can handle the people coming in.”
Migrants sent back to France are housed in one of 3,000 state accommodation centres for asylum seekers.
But they are not detained, which means they are free to come and go.
The scheme descended into farce after two migrants crossed the Channel for a second time after being removed, claiming they were at risk of being hunted down by people smugglers.
And Ms Mahmood revealed: “One of the first problems we ran in to was we couldn’t find enough people to bring in to Britain through the new route because there wasn’t enough knowledge.
“You have got to compete with organised immigration crime to get your messages out.
“We have more people in centres in France waiting to come over.”
Asked where she wants to get to, the Home Secretary refused over fears of upsetting the French.
Under the agreement, France can hide crucial details about the asylum seekers they are sending to the UK.
They can also refuse to take any Channel migrant that poses a “threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any of the Schengen States.”
And small boat arrivals with “clearly unfounded” human rights claims are allowed to stay in the UK until they have exhausted all their legal challenges.
The UK has just 14 days to detain and deport a Channel migrant to France.
