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A cabinet minister has confirmed that the UK’s returns agreement with France will continue, despite a judicial ruling blocked the removal of an asylum-seeking man.

The minister stated that the last-minute injunction stopping the 25-year-old from being sent to Paris will not derail the returns scheme permanently.

Earlier this week, a court official issued a short-term halt after the unnamed man argued he was a trafficked individual and would face destitution if returned to France.

Kendall told Times Radio that she would not comment on operational details, but reiterated: “This is one person. It is not going to weaken the fundamental basis of this agreement.”

Legal and Operational Hurdles

Legal representative acting for migrants questioned the administration’s unplanned and disorganized approach” to choosing people for removal, including cases where children were mistakenly identified.

The lawyer from her firm commented: “They have taken quite an arbitrary and unstructured approach to selecting people coming via small boats.”

She noted that minors were being caught up in the system even though they should be explicitly removed from such procedures.

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

Background of the Agreement

The Home Office last month held many Channel asylum seekers under the scheme, pledging to send them back to France “in a short time.”

Initially, deportations were scheduled on regular air services from Heathrow to Paris during this week, but none have been returned as of yet.

Ministers now face the prospect of additional legal challenges and setbacks. Insiders indicated that at least five more people were selected for removal this week.

Observers have drawn parallels the challenges to the former government’s overseas deportation plan, which faced repeated legal obstacles. But, unlike that policy, the current appeals focus on individual cases rather than the entire program.

Details of the Deal

Under the agreement, finalized in July by Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the UK committed to hold small boat migrants and send them back to France. In return, France would accept a comparable quantity of asylum seekers with family ties in the UK.

The prime minister stated at the time: “There is no simple solution. but with a joint attempt, fresh approaches and a greater degree of determination, we can finally make progress.”

On Tuesday night, Mr Justice Sheldon who granted the short-term block explained that further investigation was needed to look into the man’s claim that he was a possible trafficking survivor.

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

He claimed he had afterward traveled via Italy to France, and entered the UK by dinghy on 12 August after his mother paid £1,000 to smugglers.

Next Steps

French officials has been planning to fly asylum seekers to the UK over the weekend as part of the reciprocal deal.

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 start on Saturday.”