An Eritrean man who arrived in the UK by small boat has won a last-minute legal claim at the High Court to temporarily block his removal to France.
The 25-year-old, who reached the UK on 12 August, was due to be returned on Wednesday under the ‘one in, one out’ returns pilot scheme agreed between the UK and France.
Launching the first legal challenge against the deal in the High Court in London, his lawyers successfully argued he needed more time to present evidence that he might have been the victim of modern day slavery.
Lawyers for the Home Office argued that he could have claimed asylum in France and that he had shown no evidence of why it was not a safe country.