Katherine Forster has identified a significant weakness in Labour's newly implemented "one in, one out" migrant returns agreement with France, questioning how authorities will determine which arrivals lack valid asylum claims.
The bilateral agreement between Britain and France enables immediate detention of individuals arriving via small boats, with potential deportation back to French territory.
Under the arrangement, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as sending "a clear message" to illegal arrivals, detained individuals face removal if their asylum applications are deemed inadmissible.
However, Katherine explained: "I wouldn’t hold your breath for any immediate change.
GB NEWS
|Katherine Forster said that there "is no realistic chance" of people being detained
"One of the possible advantages of this scheme is that it will allow Border Force to detain people on arrival, because there is now a chance they can be detained. Not all of them, obviously.
"The problem at the moment is that under international law, and even domestic law, the Government can’t actually detain people or lock them up for very long unless there’s a realistic chance of deportation. And we know there’s no realistic chance of that at the moment."
GB News star Miriam Cates asked: "So one advantage, potentially, of this scheme is that they could detain more people for longer. Could that in itself be a deterrent?"
Forster explained: "Well, potentially. But they’re saying that the people who will be returned to France will only be those who have no legitimate claim for asylum.
"Now, very often, if you haven’t got a legitimate claim, if you’re not coming from somewhere that might qualify you’re going to throw your identity documents into the sea. It’s going to be difficult to work out who has a legitimate claim."
She added: "There are all these international agreements, these international laws that say you can’t do this, you can’t do that.
"Greece has just had enough. They’re saying they’re not processing any asylum seekers. They’re detaining people on arrival and have said they’ll send them back to the country they came from.
"Now, they’re in all sorts of legal trouble, but they’re doing it anyway. But I have to say, with the Prime Minister being a human rights lawyer, I don’t think we’re going to see that happening here."
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper characterised the treaty as "groundbreaking", marking the first instance where unauthorised Channel crossings could result in returns to France.
She emphasised that the initiative forms part of broader efforts to dismantle criminal smuggling operations.
PA | Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer announced the one in, one out migrant deal
The treaty, ratified following Emmanuel Macron's state visit, remains valid until June 2026 when both nations will reassess its effectiveness. Immigration Enforcement has allocated dedicated spaces within removal facilities whilst Border Force has prepared operational procedures for processing inadmissible migrants.
The Prime Minister said the Government "has been fixing the foundations of the broken asylum system" it inherited.
"Today we send a clear message - if you come here illegally on a small boat you will face being sent back to France," Starmer added.
The Home Office states that the UK-France agreement "means that anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained immediately on arrival and returned to France by the UK Government".