More than 400 small boat migrants have arrived in the first two days of Labour’s returns deal, dashing claims it would be a ‘new deterrent’.
The Home Office confirmed 248 migrants were picked up in the Channel yesterday and brought into Dover.
It followed 155 arrivals on Wednesday – the first operational day of the new Anglo-French treaty.
The Government has refused to disclose how many migrants are being detained for removal to France.
The scheme is also highly likely to face long-running legal challenges.
Yesterday Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was accused of ‘gaslighting the British public’ after he made ‘grossly exaggerated’ claims over the new deal.
Some of the 248 migrants arriving at Dover on Thursday after being picked up in the Channel by the UK Border Force’s catamaran, Ranger
Young children were among the group picked up yesterday, bringing the total to have reached Britain since the new returns deal became operational to 403
He took to social media to claim: ‘If you break the law to enter this country, you will face being sent back.’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also appeared to overstate the likely impact of her scheme, claiming that ‘every migrant’ will be ‘throwing away their money if they get into a small boat’.
In reality, the pilot scheme is only expected to return a tiny percentage of migrants.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of ‘gaslighting the British public’ for making ‘exaggerated’ claims over the scale and scope of the returns scheme
The Home Office released images of the first migrants – wearing purple tabards – who have been selected for return to France under the treaty
It will also expire in just 10 months’ time, with any renewal then in doubt as the next French presidential election campaign will, by then, be gathering pace.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘The PM is gaslighting the British public.
‘His tweet is a gross exaggeration of what this paltry scheme will do.’
The number of migrants to have reached Britain since the start of the year now stands at 25,839, 46 per cent higher than at the same point last year.
Last month Downing Street said the British and French governments had agreed a ‘new deterrent’ was required to combat small boats, leading to the signing of the treaty.
Sir Keir then pledged migrants would be ‘detained and returned to France in short order’.
Migrants selected for removal will be held in Home Office detention facilities rather than being sent to live in taxpayer-funded asylum hotels.
But it has emerged that three large hotels are being used to hold migrants at one of Britain’s busiest seaside resorts.
The properties, all within walking distance of Bournemouth seafront, have been closed to the public for more than a year after being taken over by the Home Office, the Sun reported.
One holidaymaker who paid £1,400 for a week at the resort with her daughter said she was ‘cross’ that migrants were being housed there at the taxpayers’ expense.
