UK: Launch of ‘One in, one out’ people transfer scheme ― More crossings and deaths in the Channel ― Lawyers and NGOs call out threats from far-right ― NGOs urge government to stop scapegoating people on the move ― Government makes several migration and…

• The first transfers of people under the recent UK-France migration agreement have taken place.
• There have been a significant number of small boat crossings of the Channel in recent weeks as well as several deaths.
• A large group of lawyers and NGOs have said that they are being “pressured into silence” by far-right and anti-migrant protestors.
• Another large group of NGOs has urged the government to change direction regarding migration and asylum.
• The government has announced several policy initiatives in the areas of migration and asylum in the past week.

The first transfers of people under the recent UK-France migration agreement have taken place. Four people were deported from the UK to France over several days starting on 18 September under the ‘One in, one out’ scheme, while a family of three, including a small child, arrived in the UK on 24 September. The first deportation was postponed after an Eritrean man won a last-minute legal claim to temporarily block his removal and the Home Office (Ministry of the Interior) was subsequently refused permission to appeal the temporary injunction. Commenting on the first arrivals under the new scheme, Imran Hussain from ECRE member organisation the Refugee Council said: “This is a really welcome step. No family should ever have to risk their lives in a flimsy boat to reach safety”. “By opening up safe and legal routes, we not only give children and parents the chance to rebuild their lives with dignity, but we take power away from the smugglers who profit from people’s desperation,” he added.

There have been a significant number of small boat crossings of the Channel in recent weeks as well as several deaths. According to Home Office data, 1,072 people crossed the Channel in 13 small boats on 19 September while 895 people made the crossing in 12 boats on 27 September. One of the boats that made the crossing on 27 September reportedly carried 125 people – “the largest ever number to make the journey in a single vessel” according to the BBC. On the same day, two Somali women died off the coast of the commune of Neufchâtel-Hardelot (Pas-de-Calais department) whilst attempting to make the crossing during the night of 26-27 September, while the body of a man was found in a canal in Gravelines. On 28 September, the body of a teenager who was believed to have fallen from a dinghy was discovered on a beach in the commune of Saint-Etienne-au-Mont. Prior to the latest tragedies, the BBC had estimated that, as of 22 September, at least 20 people had died trying to cross the Channel by small boat in 2025, and at least eight more people had died while travelling to make the crossing. Elsewhere, French authorities reported that they had rescued 396 people in various locations along the coast of the Nord-Pas du Calais region over the weekend of 27-28 September.

A large group of lawyers and NGOs have said that they are being “pressured into silence” by far-right and anti-migrant protestors. According to the Guardian newspaper, more than 150 lawyers and NGOs working in the human rights, asylum and migration and environmental sectors have signed a statement in response to what they describe as “increased media reporting and social media attacks targeting organisations supporting migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in our community”. The signatories are calling for “an end to the media narrative that is stoking the flames of division” and want to remind journalists and media outlets about their “duty to act responsibly and with integrity, especially when it comes to their reporting, headlines and social media output”. The statement comes after a number of the signatories received “rape and death threats”. They wrote: “Communities are living in fear, our staff and volunteers are receiving abuse, and our offices are now being targeted, adding: “The migration sector, already struggling with scarce resources, is now being forced to operate quietly, fearing that visibility will bring abuse or even physical danger. The result is a chilling effect: we’re being pressured into silence, unable to speak publicly about the injustices we witness every day”.

Despite being under pressure, another large group of NGOs has urged the government to change direction regarding migration and asylum. More than 100 organisations have co-signed a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in which they urged her to “end the scapegoating of migrants and performative policies that only cause harm” and to “unite communities and invest in meaningful solutions to prevent further damage”. The signatories, which include several UK-based ECRE member organisations, have also asked the Home Secretary to “engage with local authorities, frontline organisations and people with lived experience (…) who face the reality of hostile policies and rhetoric every day” before taking further action. Commenting on the letter, which was coordinated by Refugee Action, the organisation’s CEO, Tim Naor Hitlon, said: “The breadth of support for this letter shows that blaming people seeking asylum for problems not created by them has huge consequences across all parts of society”.

The government has announced several policy initiatives in the areas of migration and asylum in the past week. On 26 September, Prime Minister Keir Starmer presented a proposal to introduce digital identity cards in the UK which he said would “make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure”. Three days later, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that people who wanted to be granted permanent settlement status in the UK would have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community. Most recently, on 1 October the prime minister announced that the government would review the way British courts apply the European Convention of Human Rights in order to make it harder for unsuccessful asylum applicants to block their deportation. Commenting on the latest announcement, the head of the human rights NGO Liberty, Akiko Hart, said: “Changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights is interpreted are unlikely to make a material difference to migration figures and risk setting us on a path to undermining the rights of every person in Britain”. The head of the refugee support NGO Care4Calais, Steve Smith, went even further with a stark warning for Starmer: “Going from being a human rights lawyer to a human rights shredder would be the final stage in the prime minister’s makeover from humanitarian to authoritarian”.

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