Labour’s migrant returns deal with France has descended into farce as a minister appeared to contradict the terms of a new treaty.
Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy said small boat migrants sent back under the deal would see their human rights claims heard after being sent back to France.
However, it later emerged that some types of human rights cases would, in fact, block the Home Office from being able to remove migrants in the first place.
Asked whether human rights challenges amounted to a loophole in the plan, Culture Secretary Ms Nandy said: ‘That’s not the case at all.
‘The deal that we’ve struck will allow… us to send people back to France who have human rights claims.
‘Those claims will be heard in France.’
She told Sky News: ‘I know that the Conservative Party has been saying that this is a loophole. It isn’t and we’re really confident about that.’
However, the treaty clearly sets out how small boat migrants cannot be sent back to France if they have ‘an outstanding human rights claim’.
The Home Office confirmed some human rights claims will block migrants’ removal until they have been concluded in full.
It will include cases which cannot be formally ‘certified’ by officials as ‘clearly unfounded’.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Not everyone will fall within the scope of certification.
‘No doubt there will be examples where people who file a human rights claim will fall outside the scope of certification and that would have to be heard.’
It was a narrower interpretation of the circumstances than those set out by Ms Nandy, and legal proceedings could take months or even years to wrap up.
The Mail has learned pro-migrant groups have begun informal discussions about launching a joint legal action against Labour’s plan – just as they did against the Tories’ Rwanda scheme.
Sources said there had already been ‘a certain amount of co-ordination’ between charities and other groups, with details of the treaty still being analysed.
The Free Movement website, which offers advice to immigration lawyers, has published an analysis of the new measures which says: ‘Legal challenges will be more difficult than for Rwanda, however there are still likely to be grounds on which some people can resist removal to France.
‘For example, if the inadmissibility decision was wrong, if people have family in the UK, or had experiences in France which make it inappropriate to send them back.’
Meanwhile, the French interior ministry led by Bruno Retailleau – who signed the treaty alongside Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – declined to answer questions about the deal.
Last month Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged migrants would be ‘detained and returned to France in short order’ under the agreement.
But earlier today – the first day it was in force – Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp posted videos from the Channel as he watched migrant boats bound for the UK coast, escorted by a French vessel.
He said it showed the Anglo-French deal was a failure, adding that occupants of the boats were ‘coming to a hotel near you soon’.
‘On the very day Labour’s flagship Channel deal was meant to kick in, I watched French ships escort illegal migrants straight into British waters,’ Mr Philp said.
‘Labour’s migrant surrender deal with France is in shambles and today has proven that it will have no deterrent effect whatsoever.’
It is unclear whether the Home Office had detained any of the new arrivals for possible removal to France.
Officials had previously described how migrants would be taken to the Home Office’s processing centre at Manston, near Ramsgate in Kent, for initial screening.
Those selected would be sent to short-term detention facilities for further screening, and then on to an immigration removal centre.
Under the terms of the treaty the UK must hand France the names of those to be removed within 14 days of their arrival.
The French government then has up to 28 days to respond.
Labour’s deal with France came a year after Sir Keir scrapped the Tories’ Rwanda asylum scheme as one of his first acts in office.
The Rwanda deal, designed to deter Channel crossings and save lives, was ready to finally get off the ground after more than two years in legal limbo.
