The first civilian flight from London's Heathrow Airport landed in Paris with a migrant on board who crossed the English Channel in a small boat, according to the agreement between Britain and France on deportation, BNR reported.
The British government announced at the beginning of the week that migrants would be deported to Paris every day on civilian flights under the "one-in, one-out" scheme, but it was only on Thursday that this happened for the first time, after the deportation had been postponed in previous days due to a legal challenge.
The migrant deported yesterday is an Indian citizen. Meanwhile, late last night the High Court rejected an attempt to temporarily halt the deportation of an Eritrean national who failed to board a plane on Tuesday because an earlier court ruling ruled that more time was needed to prove he was a victim of human trafficking. The Eritrean is now scheduled to be deported on an early flight today.
The British government was faced with a serious problem with the scheme failing after migrants successfully appealed against deportation on human rights grounds in the early days of the week. After the first migrant was successfully removed yesterday, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was an important first step in securing Britain's borders and a message to people crossing in small boats that if they enter the UK illegally they risk being deported.