R (SKG) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

18/12/2025

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Citation

[2025] EWHC 2602 (Admin)

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On 18 September 2025, Sheldon J heard an urgent application for interim relief seeking a stay of the Claimant’s removal to France the next morning under the “one in one out” policy.   His readmission to France was pursuant to the agreement between the Government of United Kingdom and the Government of the French Republic on the prevention of dangerous journeys (“the Agreement”). Sian Reeves appeared, unled, for the SSHD. 

Sheldon J refused the application for interim relief.  Sheldon J held:

1. There was no serious issue to be tried that the Claimant had been denied procedural fairness with respect to his trafficking claim. In any event, even if there was a lack of procedural fairness, it made no material difference, because the situation in France allows the Claimant to make the same kind of trafficking claim as he could in this country.

The balance of convenience favoured the Claimant’s removal and giving effect to the Agreement. There are significant public interests in favour of the Claimant’s removal: (a) the SSHD is, by definition, seeking to act in the public interest; (b) there are arrangements in place pursuant to the Agreement for the return of transferred persons from France to the United Kingdom in the event that the Government becomes subject to a legal obligation to secure such return; and (c) there is a powerful public interest in permitting the SSHD to implement her policy, as reflected in the Agreement, having regard to the danger arising from unsafe crossings.

The Claimant was removed to France the next morning and was the second migrant to be removed (the first having agreed to go).

A link to the judgement can be found here.