Overview
- The Iranian national was removed to France on 19 September after first arriving on 6 August, re-entered by small boat on 18 October, and is now detained pending a fresh bid to return him.
- Home Office figures and reporting indicate just 42 removals to France under the pilot since 6 August, with media also reporting 23 admissions to the UK via the deal’s legal route.
- This year’s small-boat arrivals have surpassed the 2024 total of 36,816, with coverage noting roughly 60,000 crossings since the July 2024 election.
- Reporting points to a practical gap in France, where returnees have been placed in Paris shelters rather than detained near the coast, enabling some to travel back north to reattempt crossings.
- The Home Office says repeat re-entrants will be removed again, while critics cite the slow pace of returns—Migration Watch estimates centuries at current rates—as evidence the scheme is not working.