People held under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ asylum deal say they had not heard of it

Some of first group of small boat arrivals to be detained say they are terrified of being sent back to their home countries

Asylum seekers locked in detention centres as part of Labour’s “one in, one out” deal have said they had not heard of the scheme before arriving in the UK on small boats and were terrified of being returned to their home countries.

The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has said the plan to send one small boat arrival back to France in exchange for accepting another to live in the UK would deter the thousands from crossing the Channel.

Since the first group of small boat arrivals were detained just over a week ago on 6 August, 2,363 people have crossed the Channel. More than 50,000 have crossed since Labour came into power.

“I was so happy to survive the journey across the Channel and to reach land in the UK. Then the Home Office locked me up. I’m still in a state of shock,” said one man from Eritrea, speaking to the Guardian by phone from a detention centre.