Labour’s migrant deal ‘descending into farce’ as French activists launch legal challenge to block £160m detention centre

Labour’s 'one in, one out' migrant deal with France has descended into “farce”, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said after activists launched a legal challenge against plans for a new French detention centre intended to support efforts to curb small boat crossings.

The Home Office had pledged to fund the facility near Dunkirk only once it had opened, with the condition that financial support would be withdrawn if the arrangement failed to deliver proven results within its first year.

According to French authorities, the centre was due to be open and operational by the end of this year.

However, a new lawsuit filed by a French environmental group states the building permit should be cancelled because the facility in the Loon-Plage area does not comply with local planning rules.

Despite the filing of the lawsuit, construction of the site can continue but it could be delayed while the appeal progresses through the French court system.

An environmental group known as ADELFA, officially titled the Flemish-Artois Coastal Environmental Defense Assembly, had an initial challenge against France's Ministry of the Interior rejected last year.

ADELFA then filed an appeal at the Administrative Court of Lille in February this year.

The group's legal team has argued the facility is located in an industrial zone where residential accommodation is not allowed under planning rules.

ADELFA's President Nicolas Fournier, told the BBC the group was "still trying to hinder this process of building the detention centre with the appeal".

He said: "Putting so many resources solely into repression, with ever more police, doesn't work.

"So we really need to find other solutions, because we can't continue to allow this risk of seeing people take to the sea in unacceptable, deplorable conditions that endanger them."

While the ongoing costs of building and running the new detention centre have not been revealed by the French Government, a report written by the upper house of the French Parliament, said a standard 140-bed detention centre costs about €40m (£36m).

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According to the proposals, the detention centre would hold around 140 people, however progress on construction has been slow.

Some migrants will be held at the new detention centre, before they would be deported back to their home countries or other EU nations they have passed through.

The focus would be on removing migrants countries including Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and Yemen, the top 10 countries of origin of people who attempted crossings in small boats last year.

A trial scheme using existing capacity at a nearby removal centre in Coquelles started from May this year, until construction of the facility near Dunkirk is completed.

Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control Robert Bates described the proposals as "yet another Home Office gimmick descending into chaos".

He told GB News: "Bereft of any other ideas, the centrepiece of the Government’s small boats strategy now amounts to little more than throwing money at the French, who have persistently shown themselves to be unreliable partners.

"We cannot afford to simply wait and pray that this detention centre becomes operational. The Government must start investing in British detention facilities and commit to an unwavering policy of detention and deportation."

GB News has contacted the Home Office for comment.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told GB News: "The Government’s so-called deal is descending into farce. They have already handed over half a billion pounds unconditionally.

"Yet in the last few days alone over 1,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel with the French barely lifting a finger. Now it looks like their detention centre won’t ever open.

"No wonder more illegal immigrants have crossed under Keir Starmer than any other Prime Minister - up 45 per cent up since the election. The only way to stop this is to leave the ECHR and deport all illegal immigrants within a week of arrival. But Labour is too weak to do this."

Reform's Home Affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf told The People's Channel: "Shabana Mahmood is now set to waste even more taxpayer money funding expensive lawyers just to try and get a single detention centre open in France.

"This is yet another example of Labour claiming they want to stop the boats while refusing to do what it actually takes - leaving the failing ECHR and detaining and deporting every illegal migrant, as Reform would do."

UK net migration dropped to an estimated 171,000 last year, the lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The figures for the 12 months to December, published last week, were down 48 per cent compared with the previous year (331,000), according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It is the first time the estimate, which is the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving the country, has fallen below 200,000 since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.