Home Office loses bid to overturn court order blocking migrant's removal

London — The Court of Appeal refused the Home Office's bid to overturn a temporary injunction blocking the removal of a 25-year-old Eritrean migrant to France under the one in, one out returns agreement. The man, who arrived in the United Kingdom on a small boat, had been due to be among the first people sent to France under the pilot scheme before a High Court injunction granted last week gave him at least 14 days to make representations over a possible modern slavery claim.

Last week, the High Court in London granted interim relief, delaying removal while the man could present representations. In a ruling on Tuesday, Court of Appeal judges said the lower court was correct to find there was a serious issue to be tried on whether the Secretary of State was acting unlawfully by seeking to remove him in those circumstances. The case centers on the legal thresholds for removals under the scheme, and the potential impact on the policy's execution if similar injunctions were allowed to stand.

The returns pact, announced in July by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, is intended to smooth the removal of migrants who arrived in the UK by small boat and whose asylum claims have been withdrawn or deemed inadmissible. Under the scheme, for each person returned to France, the UK would accept someone with a protection claim who had not attempted to cross the Channel.

Kate Grange KC, acting for the Home Office, argued that the judge's interim relief would cause real damage to the public interest and undermine the policy's objectives. Sonali Naik KC, representing the asylum seeker, contended that the order was appropriate given the urgent circumstances and should be understood in its own facts. The court acknowledged that there was a serious issue to be tried, but chose not to grant permission to appeal at this stage.

The decision highlights the friction between migration control aims and individual rights in asylum cases as the joint UK-France returns policy moves toward implementation. With the Court of Appeal's ruling, the Home Office faces an additional hurdle before any removal could proceed under the pilot scheme.