UK’s ‘one in, one out’ scheme has failed to protect torture survivors, says charity

The Home Office has been accused of failing to protect survivors of trafficking and torture detained as part of the government’s “one in, one out” scheme.

Medical Justice, a charity that sends independent clinicians into immigration detention centres, has surveyed 33 detainees waiting to be returned to France by the Home Office in a new report, the first to assess the welfare of this group of detainees.

The report calls for “one in, one out” to be scrapped and for small boat arrivals to have their asylum claims processed in the UK. More than 200 people who crossed the Channel from France to UK in small boats since August 2025 have been forcibly returned to France, with a similar number brought legally to the UK from France.

According to the charity, 18 of the 33 people they surveyed showed clinical evidence of torture or trafficking.

Small boats and outboard motors used by migrants to cross the Channel stored at a Home Office facility. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

“Clinical safeguards in detention are failing to protect these people,” the report states, adding that it makes the protection system in Home Office detention centres “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 when they lost hope. From a clinical perspective this is dangerous,” the report adds.

Many described facing severe violence, intimidation and death threats, from traffickers and people smugglers, border forces, police and organised gangs. They said they were videoed or photographed by traffickers who threatened to use this to find and kill them if they returned to France.

One man, who had clinical evidence of a history of torture, told a Medical Justice clinician that he was subjected to restraint involving excessive force and violence during a removal attempt to France.

“After a few minutes, I became dizzy, and my voice became weak and my strength was limited to just tears. They saw me struggling for air and honestly, my eyes were turning white and my breathing was difficult. I said in a low voice, ‘I can’t breathe’, and I thought to myself: ‘Oh, my God’.” He was returned to detention and a Medical Justice clinician documented evidence of his physical injuries and psychological harm afterwards.

A spokesperson for Medical Justice said: “What sets apart the mistreatment of clients detained under this scheme is the combination of an especially high proportion of trafficking and torture survivors who are at higher risk of harm in detention, alarmingly high levels of suicidality and the fact that almost all of them experienced dysfunction of the clinical safeguarding system. We fear the government wants to remove these people come what may.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Protecting the UK border is our top priority. Our landmark onein, one out scheme means we can send those who arrive on small boats straight back to France – a safe country in which any protection claims can be, and are being, considered. The welfare of people detained is of the utmost importance and we are committed to ensuring that detention and removal are carried out with dignity.”