The Home Office has been accused of failing to protect survivors of trafficking and torture detained under the government’s “one in, one out” scheme.
Medical Justice, a charity that sends independent clinicians into immigration detention centres, surveyed 33 detainees awaiting return to France by the Home Office in a new report – the first to assess the welfare of this group.
The report calls for the “one in, one out” scheme to be scrapped and for asylum claims from small boat arrivals to be processed in the UK. Since August 2025, over 200 people crossing the Channel from France to the UK in small boats have been forcibly returned to France, with a similar number legally brought to the UK from France.
According to the charity, 18 of the 33 people surveyed showed clinical evidence of torture or trafficking.
“Clinical safeguards in detention are failing to protect these people,” the report states, adding that the protection system in Home Office detention centres has become “a futile exercise” with “near total disregard for identified vulnerabilities.”
“For many people, detention in the UK – not past trauma – was described as the moment they lost hope. From a clinical perspective, this is dangerous,” the report adds.
Many detainees reported facing severe violence, intimidation, and death threats from traffickers, smugglers, border forces, police, and organized gangs. They said they were filmed or photographed by traffickers, who threatened to use this evidence to find and kill them if they returned to France.
One man, with clinical evidence of past torture, told a Medical Justice clinician that he was subjected to excessive restraint and violence during an attempted removal to France.
“After a few minutes, I became dizzy, my voice weakened, and I could only cry. They saw me struggling for air – my eyes were turning white and breathing was difficult. I said quietly, ‘I can’t breathe,’ and thought, ‘Oh, my God.’” He was returned to detention, and a Medical Justice clinician documented evidence of physical injuries and psychological harm.
A Medical Justice spokesperson said: “The mistreatment of clients under this scheme is marked by the unusually high proportion of trafficking and torture survivors at risk in detention, alarmingly high levels of suicidality, and the widespread failure of the clinical safeguarding system. We fear the government wants to remove these people, no matter what.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Protecting the UK border is our top priority. Our landmark one-in, one-out scheme allows us to return those arriving on small boats directly to France – a safe country where protection claims are, and can be, considered. The welfare of detained people is paramount, and we are committed to ensuring detention and removal are carried out with dignity.”
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News Source: The Guardian