By News18,Shankhyaneel Sarkar

Copyright news18

The UK deported its first migrant to France under the ‘one in one out’ deal signed between both countries in July. According to the Hindu, which cited the French Interior Ministry, French officials received one migrant on September 17. The newspaper said that the French officials declined to confirm citizenship details but reports by UK-based news outlets BBC and the Telegraph say that the person deported is an Indian national.
UK’s Pakistani-origin Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said that the deportation sends a “message”.
“This is an important first step to securing our borders. It sends a message to people crossing in small boats: if you enter the UK illegally, we will seek to remove you,” Mahmood was quoted as saying by broadcaster BBC.
The Indian national was deported from the UK on Thursday morning aboard an Air France flight, marking the first removal under the UK–France ‘one in, one out’ pilot scheme agreed last month to curb small boat crossings, according to the broadcaster.
“This is an issue we are taking incredibly seriously, we have struck a number of cooperation deals with other countries because this is a problem right across Europe. We struck the returns arrangement with France and notwithstanding the challenges to that scheme that you’ve seen in the last few days, a flight went off at 06:15 this morning successfully returning someone in that scheme,” UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said, referring to the deportation.
The ‘one in, one out’ deal is designed to deter migrants from attempting the dangerous English Channel crossing in small boats. For each migrant returned to France, another with a strong asylum claim in the UK can enter. The treaty allows the UK to detain Channel crossers immediately and, typically within two weeks, arrange their return with French authorities. The scheme aims to discourage people from relying on smugglers by highlighting the risk of being sent back.