A prominent human rights barrister has cast serious doubt on the effectiveness of the UK-France migration deal, warning that fundamental weaknesses could leave it powerless.
Fadi Farhat told GB News: "It's certainly not the silver bullet promised by Keir Starmer, and the preamble to the agreement talks about how it's an achievement of diplomatic relations."
His stark conclusion suggests the agreement might be "toothless" and potentially "not even be worth the paper it's written on."
GB News / PA
|Keir Starmer's migrant exchange deal with France has been criticised by human rights lawyer Fadi Farhat
The agreement mandates that Britain must lodge transfer requests with French authorities within a fortnight of a migrant's arrival on UK soil.
This countdown begins from the moment of entry, not when asylum seekers present themselves to officials.
"So what you could have now is a scenario where actually an individual might want to run down the clock on arrival. Let's say one arrives and then you have a group that disperse and run down the 14 day clock," Farhat explained.
The barrister highlighted how this narrow window creates significant operational challenges for UK authorities, who must compile extensive documentation and complete assessments under severe time pressure.
GB News
|More than 150 migrants entered Britain just one day after Keir Starmer's return deal with France began
The French authorities have up to four weeks to evaluate transfer requests, with the option to extend from an initial fortnight to 28 days.
"And the treaty explicitly states that if France does not reply within 28 days, then that's to be treated as a negative request denied," Farhat noted.
This arrangement effectively hands Paris complete discretion over which cases to accept, with no repercussions for simply ignoring applications.
"So in actual fact, the French can just sit on it and they can effectively have a veto to cherry pick and select what they want," the barrister warned.
GB News
|Farhat told GB News that the French have the power to 'sit on' claims in the exchange deal
The treaty stipulates that the entire procedure should conclude within three months, yet provides no mechanism if this deadline passes.
Current UK resources make this timeline virtually impossible to achieve, particularly when complex human rights assessments and age verification processes are involved.
"And there's no way under the current resources and bandwidth that you're going to determine a human rights claim, as well as any appeal rights or any judicial remedies you may have within a three month period," Farhat stated.
The barrister observed that Britain's existing asylum backlogs demonstrate the system's inability to process cases at such speed.