Nearly a hundred children have been locked up in adult immigration detention facilities because the government's flagship small boat deal is completely broken. Think about that for a second. Official figures show that out of 304 age-disputed cases arising from Shabana Mahmood's "one in, one out" arrangement with France over a nine-month window, 94 individuals—roughly 31 percent—were later verified as minors.
Minors are legally barred from this fast-track removal scheme. Yet, they're slipping straight through the cracks of a rushed border screening process that treats human lives like administrative bottlenecks.
Let's look at what is actually happening behind the scenes of Operation Hillmore, the official designation for this policy.
The Reality Behind the One-in-One-Out Scheme
Launched last August, the initiative lets the UK send certain small-boat arrivals back across the Channel while taking an equal number of asylum applicants from France. It sounds tidy on paper. In practice, it's a administrative disaster zone for child safeguarding.
Jane Leech, the interim chair of independent monitoring boards (IMBs), laid out the grim specifics in a scathing letter to Home Office minister Anna Turley. She didn't mince words.
- Prolonged detention: People are stuck waiting for deportation for more than six months, well past the supposed 28-day limit meant strictly for exceptional cases. One man sat in a cell for 27 weeks.
- Severe medical risks: Detainees have been prepped for removal to France while actively sick with tuberculosis or requiring urgent hospital care.
- Family separation: Individuals have faced removal after being torn away from traveling family members, causing intense psychological damage.
Screening facilities like Manston are missing critical health issues entirely. Gatwick immigration removal centre recently turned away a detainee whose medical state was so critical they had to be rushed straight to an outside hospital. Another arrived carrying tuberculosis.
Why Age Assessments are Failing
If you arrive on a small boat after surviving an impossible journey, your age shouldn't be a guessing game handled by tired border staff late at night. But that's the current reality.
Independent monitors found it took 40 days or longer just to complete an age assessment at Heathrow. When young people wait weeks behind bars while officials argue over their birthdates, the system has already failed them.
Refugee advocates like the Refugee Council's Imran Hussain point out the obvious solution: professional, social-worker-led assessments. Instead, the Home Office relies on rapid border evaluations that repeatedly misidentify vulnerable teenagers as adults.
Many of these kids are survivors of torture, trafficking, and extreme abuse. Throwing them into high-security adult centers doesn't protect the border. It just compounds their trauma.
What Happens Next
The numbers tell a messy story. Government data shows that between August 2025 and June 2026, 1,087 people were sent back to France under the deal, while 27,920 arrived on small boats. Interestingly, separate findings show dozens of deported individuals have already managed to cross back over and return to the UK, casting serious doubt on the long-term effectiveness of the policy itself.
Ministers insist robust age checks are vital to safeguard the system. But when nearly a third of disputed cases turn out to be children, the safeguards aren't working.
If the government wants to stop small boats without trampling basic child rights, the entire screening mechanism needs an overhaul. Stop rushing vulnerable minors into adult cells. Bring in trained social workers from day one. Fix the glaring holes in medical screening before someone falls through permanently.
