CHANNEL MIGRANTS TO BE DEPORTED ON AIR FRANCE FLIGHTS- The Illegal migrants will be escorted by contracted Home Office staff 

Channel migrants are set to be deported on Air France passenger flights this week.The arrangements for the first deportations under Sir Keir Starmer’s one in, one out deal with the French have been agreed.

The asylum seekers, who have been detained since arriving on small boats in August, are expected to be escorted by contracted Home Office security staff on commercial flights alongside paying passengers rather than charter aircraft, reports say.

The move is standard practice for the removals of failed asylum seekers because of the cost of chartering dedicated aircraft, which are normally reserved for the return of foreign national offenders and illegal migrants to their home countries.

The UK will accept asylum seekers from France in return. The first arrivals in Britain are expected next Saturday, according to the French interior ministry. It is thought that there will be up to four deportation flights this week, starting as early as Monday and running through Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

Legal observers suggested there might be as few as 10 migrants per flight, with at least one security escort per migrant.

The initial removals are expected to be “low key”, unlike the deportations in February of 47 Albanian criminals and illegal migrants. They were filmed being taken on board a chartered plane flanked by up to five security escorts.

The Home Office published those videos in an attempt to show Labour’s tougher approach.