The Home Office is set to ignore a high court ruling and continue sending asylum seekers to France without looking into claims they have been trafficked, which last week was found to be unlawful.
On Friday Mr Justice Sheldon ruled against the home secretary’s policy to reduce protections for trafficking victims earmarked for forced removal to France. Home Office sources told the Guardian that operational activity could continue despite the ruling. Home Office removed certain protections for this group because they could delay removals to France by at least 30 days.
There is at least one private flight a week chartered by the Home Office to forcibly remove to France dozens of asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK on small boats. The next flight to France is due to take off on Thursday.
Some asylum seekers detained for Thursday’s flight or for future flights told the Guardian: “The Home Office doesn’t listen to us when we try to tell them we are victims of trafficking. They just send us to France whatever we tell them.”
Friday’s court ruling raised questions about what should happen to asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK in small boats and are now held in immigration detention centres, and those already forcibly returned to France, who may be affected. There are estimated to be several hundred people in both groups.
According to the judgment, it is unlawful not to reconsider any initial negative trafficking decisions among this group. But the Home Office has indicated it will proceed with removals of potential trafficking victims.
The Home Office was found to have acted unlawfully in respect of a change in guidance last September on the one in, one out scheme denying reconsideration of negative trafficking decisions. The guidance has been part of the UK framework for identifying trafficking victims since 2013.
According to data provided in the high court case and included in the judgment, almost 80% of trafficking victims who received initial negative decisions on trafficking claims in 2025 had the negative decisions reversed after reconsideration – 1,525 people.
It emerged in the high court case that the UK government was aware of potential problems with sending asylum seekers to France in terms of how their trafficking cases would be treated before agreeing the one in, one out deal last July. Home Office officials noted they would be likely to receive the status of “unofficial” victims of trafficking because they were not French and many were not trafficked inside France.
Emma Ginn, the director of Medical Justice, which works with immigration detainees, said: “Many of our one in, one out clients are potential survivors of trafficking. We hope that following the high court ruling the Home Office will ensure that trafficking cases given an initial negative decision will be given the right to request that decision be reconsidered, in line with the findings of the judgment, and that the independent medical evidence we provide to our clients is properly considered.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Last-minute modern slavery claims must not be used to frustrate the removal of illegal migrants. We are reforming our laws to stop dubious last-minute claims, while strengthening protections for those who need them. The home secretary will fight this in the courts and appeal this judgment.”
