An asylum seeker sent back to France under the controversial “one in, one out” scheme faces being returned to Syria after authorities in Paris ruled it was safe to do so, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind.

When the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced the “groundbreaking” deal in July 2025 to stop small boats crowded with asylum seekers from crossing the Channel – by forcibly returning one small-boat asylum seeker to France in exchange for bringing one in northern France legally to the UK – they emphasised that France was a safe country for returnees.

Now, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind, a 26-year-old Kurdish man from Syria, who arrived in the UK on a small boat and was sent back to France last November, has had the asylum claim he lodged in France rejected by the authorities. The rejection letter states that Syria will be safe for him.

One of the key issues in the previous British government’s failed plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was the risk of onward return from there to unsafe countries. Syria is not on the recently updated EU list of safe countries for asylum seekers to be returned to.

Despite this, the man’s refusal letter states: “The individual … has not presented any relevant arguments that would convince the office that his personal circumstances would pose a serious and individual threat to his life or person should he return to his country.”

The asylum interview in France to determine his future, seen by the Guardian, lasted one hour and 12 minutes followed by a further interview of 49 minutes. Much of the interview focused on asking him to prove he lived in the village he said he lived in.

The man fled Syria last year after the village chief told him the Kurdish militia in the area, the YPG, had his name on a list for forced conscription. “I didn’t want to go to war and kill people,” he said.

He fled with family members, including his mother and younger siblings. They used smugglers to cross the border from Syria to Turkey, where smugglers separated him from the rest of his family and forced him into a different lorry.

“I do not know what has happened to my family. I have not managed to make contact with them since the smugglers separated us,” he said.

“I am so stressed by everything that has happened to me that my hair has started falling out. I’m 26 and I am too young to be losing my hair. I don’t know what to do now. I followed the rules under ‘one in, one out’ and claimed asylum in France, but that has been rejected.

“I am the first asylum seeker returned to France to receive this rejection. If I return to the UK on a small boat, the Home Office will catch me and put me back in detention. If I go back to Syria, the YPG militia will get me. What should I do?”

Since September 2025, under the one in, one out system, and as of 24 April, 561 people have been removed to France after arriving in the UK on small boats, with 551 brought legally to the UK. Just days before these figures were released, 602 asylum seekers arrived on small boats on 18 April, raising questions about the deterrent value of the scheme.

The immigration solicitor Sonia Lenegan said: “This case is an example of the real risk involved in returning people to France. Most people who make the journey across the Channel are refugees, which means that the UK accepts that they face danger in their home country. In returning people to France, the UK is putting them at real risk of being returned to the country where they face persecution, in violation of the refugee convention.”

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants this week launched a letter-writing campaign against the five airlines involved in one in, one out removals to France. So far more than 6,500 people have sent letters asking the airlines to stop taking part in the “inhumane and racist” deportations.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Under our returns agreement with France, we have deported more than 600 illegal migrants from British soil. This contributes to the nearly 60,000 illegal migrants who have been returned since July 2025, up 31% on the 19 months prior.”

Home Office sources said Syrian asylum seekers in the UK whose claims were rejected would face return if it was safe to do so and that the government was working with Syrian authorities to facilitate this. The sources added that no one would be returned to Syria if they were at risk of persecution or serious harm on return.

France’s interior ministry has been approached for comment.