Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has been accused of putting lives at risk after she claimed asylum seekers were using modern slavery laws to submit “vexatious, last-minute” legal claims.
Ms Mahmood has vowed to review modern slavery legislation after the High Court blocked an asylum seeker’s removal from the UK under the “one in, one out” deal with France.
Ms Mahmood pledged that the deportations would still go ahead this week, and called a court decision to block the removal of an asylum seeker “intolerable”. She claimed that asylum seekers were making “vexatious, last-minute claims” and said they were claiming “they are a modern slave on the eve of their removal”.
But the independent anti-slavery commissioner, Eleanor Lyons, condemned the home secretary’s comments, saying that they would “have a real-life impact on victims of exploitation, who may now be more scared to come forward and talk about what’s happened to them”.
She said that both the House of Commons and the House of Lords select committees had looked at modern slavery claims in recent years and found there was no misuse of the system.
“It puts vulnerable lives at risk when the home secretary is claiming that [this] is the case,” Ms Lyons said.
It comes after the High Court granted a last-minute injunction to a 25-year-old Eritrean man on Tuesday evening, halting his removal on an early flight to Paris on Wednesday.
Labour is under mounting pressure to demonstrate that the much-vaunted returns deal with France will actually work, after scheduled flights on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday left the UK without any migrants on board.
Ms Mahmood said that “last-minute attempts to frustrate a removal are intolerable” and added that she would “fight them at every step”, as she confirmed that the Home Office would appeal against the High Court’s temporary block.
The judge has given the Eritrean asylum seeker, who is still in detention, 14 days to challenge a Home Office decision that he doesn’t qualify for modern slavery support.
The man said he was a victim of trafficking in Libya and, as such, was entitled to help under the UK’s National Referral Mechanism. He was given time to challenge the refusal after the Home Office conceded that he would not be able to pursue the claim from France.
Lawyers told the court that he would not be able to argue for modern slavery support from “the streets of France” and that there was a real risk he could be made destitute by being returned there.
However, Ms Mahmood said: “Migrants suddenly deciding that they are a modern slave on the eve of their removal, having never made such a claim before, make a mockery of our laws and this country’s generosity.”
She added: “I will fight to end vexatious, last-minute claims. I will robustly defend the British public’s priorities in any court.”
Ms Lyons explained that experts are needed to spot worrying signs of trafficking or exploitation, with vulnerable asylum seekers often not opening up about their past as soon as they arrive in the UK.
She also explained that the evidence threshold for the Home Office to assess if someone is a modern slave is already very high, adding: “Objective evidence has to be submitted.”
Speaking about the case of the Eritrean asylum seeker, government minister Liz Kendall said on Wednesday that “this is one person” and insisted that the case “is not going to undermine the fundamental basis of this deal”.
But Labour MP Nadia Whittome condemned the scheme as “a ridiculous policy that would be more at home in a Reform manifesto”. She described the plan as “unworkable, cruel and unfair”.
“You can deport all the immigrants you want, but it’s not going to improve people’s living standards,” she added.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, compared the scheme to the Tories’ failed plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying: “Starmer’s ‘one in, one out’ deal is a complete shambles; morally and practically, it’s Rwanda Mk II. He took it straight from the far-right playbook, boosting Reform talking points and emboldening fascists marching on our streets this weekend.”
She warned that “Labour can’t out-Reform Reform, and we shouldn’t try.”
Further migrants had been due to be removed to France on Wednesday and throughout the week, but the scheme is now in jeopardy, with the Home Office refusing to give details of when the first deportations might take place.
A French interior ministry spokesperson has said that the first migrants are still expected to arrive in France this week, and that the first people to be sent in exchange will arrive in the UK on Saturday.
It comes as new signs have been put up around Calais warning asylum seekers that the new treaty is now in force.
The posters, distributed by the British and French governments, warn: “If you arrive in the UK by small boat illegally, you now risk being deported and will not be eligible to re-enter the UK nor remain in France without the legal right to.”
Lachlan Macrae, from the group Calais Food Collective, which supports migrants in northern France with food and water, said: “Many people have specific circumstances relating to torture and trauma in other countries, which means that they would likely bring challenges in the court for any deportation. However, that doesn’t mean that this [messaging] is not affecting people.
“Just like the Rwanda scheme, it’s causing fear and confusion. Every day, people come up and ask about the scheme. It’s a form of weaponised uncertainty.”
Sile Reynolds, head of asylum advocacy at charity Freedom from Torture, said that rushing deportations to France “denies people a fair hearing and the chance to evidence their vulnerability, as the High Court’s recent decision to delay the removal of one young survivor of trafficking clearly shows”.
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