More than 100 asylum seekers held at two immigration detention centres in the UK have staged overnight protests against the government’s controversial “one in, one out” scheme with France. The demonstrations, which took place at the Harmondsworth and Brook House facilities, saw officers with riot shields, dogs, and tear gas called in to quell the action.
The first “one in, one out” flight of 2026 is understood to have taken off on Thursday morning, following the cancellation of a flight last week. Asylum seekers detained for removal to France under the scheme have produced four reports documenting their concerns about the policy and their detention conditions.
Detainees told The Guardian that they were peacefully resisting being taken to the airport because they believed that while France was generally a safe country, it was not safe for some of them who had received threats from people smugglers. Some also fear that under European Union law, they will be returned to another EU country and from there forcibly returned to their country of origin, where they believe their lives may be in danger.
The protesters raised concerns about what they consider to be the random nature of the “one in, one out” scheme, which allows the majority of passengers on a dinghy to have their asylum claims processed in the UK while a minority are detained in preparation for forcible removal to France. The scheme has been called ineffective by both those who support asylum seekers and those who oppose them.
Before the flight on Thursday, just 193 people had been forcibly removed to France, with 195 legally brought to the UK in turn. While only 32 people have crossed the Channel so far this year, thought to be a result of adverse weather conditions, 803 people crossed in 13 boats on 20 December, a few months after “one in, one out” was introduced, indicating the scheme was not yet serving as a deterrent in the way the government had hoped.
The protesters say they were also tear-gassed during the demonstrations. Another detainee who participated in the action but did not have a ticket for Thursday’s flight told The Guardian by phone in the early hours that the situation was getting worse, with “special forces” brought in and the use of tear gas.
A spokesperson for the organisation Captain Support, which supports migrants on the move including people crossing the Channel in small boats, said they were in contact with the protesting detainees. “We are horrified by the violence used against [the protesters] to enact the government’s ‘one in, one out’ plan,” they said.
Libby Kane of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) said: “This cruel UK-France scheme ultimately amounts to state-sanctioned human trafficking. We stand in complete solidarity with them and their demands.”
The Home Office declined to comment on the incident.
