'I just want to be safe' The refugees returned to France

Afran, an Iranian asylum seeker, sits forlornly across the road from a Paris shelter, hemmed in between vast slabs of concrete and thundering trains above.

- Diane Taylor

He has been here before - seven weeks ago, to be precise. The second time, he says, is as terrifying as his first.

Afran - not his real name - hit the headlines when he became the first asylum seeker to return to the UK in a small boat after being removed to France under the controversial "one in, one out" scheme on 19 September.

He was sent back to Paris for the second time on 5 November.

"France, UK, France, UK, France - it's not my choice," he says. "I went to UK twice because I felt I had no other option. The smugglers in northern France attacked me and threatened my life before I crossed to the UK for the first time on August 6. When the Home Office returned me here the first time I believed the smugglers were still searching for me. I continue to believe that. I am frightened every time I go outside the shelter. I am not safe here." Afran is sitting with three others recent returnees from the UK, including the first woman removed under the scheme. Now the policy will be followed by draconian measures the government claims will deter asylum seekers from crossing the Channel in small boats.

But the group's stories - of danger, dislocation and a lack of protection even after removal - are a stark illustration of how those theories of deterrence can collide with the desperate logic of survival.

Even before the latest measures, the scheme has proved highly controversial. The right views it as ineffective, with just 113 returns to France so far and 84 asylum seekers allowed to come the other way.

On Friday alone, 217 people made the boat crossing - doubling the number removed so far in a single day. Human rights campaigners see the scheme as unduly harsh and arbitrary in terms of who can stay and who must go.