By Sophie Hardach
PARIS (Reuters) - Britain and France deported three Afghan illegal migrants on a first joint flight on Tuesday night as part of an immigration crackdown that has drawn fire from human rights groups.
The secretive operation was part of wider Anglo-French cooperation over immigration, a hot-button issue in relations since thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries use France as a launch pad to cross the channel.
The flight "left Roissy airport at midnight with three Afghans, three male adults, on board, and will take them back to their country of origin," French Immigration Minister Eric Besson said on Europe 1 radio, adding that Britain had chartered the plane.
The flight angered activists and French opposition Socialists who pointed to the worsening security in Afghanistan. Previous protests forced France to withdraw at the last minute.
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France and Britain, two major contributors of troops in Afghanistan, agreed in July to toughen border controls and jointly deport migrants. France also cleared a tent city near the port of Calais where migrants tried to cross the channel.
Besson has said migrants will be returned to safe places. The three who were deported on Tuesday lived in France.
"This is a disgrace for France, we cannot treat men and women like this," Socialist leader Martine Aubry said on France 2 television on Wednesday. "I want to point out that they don't come here to bother us but to flee war, misery and poverty."
A spokesman for Britain's Home Office said on Tuesday it was their policy not to confirm or deny such flights until after the plane had landed. French officials also refused to comment before the flight.
A police source said on Tuesday the policed flight would start in London and stop at Paris's Roissy airport before continuing to Kabul.
More than 10,000 people including Bertrand Delanoe, the socialist mayor of Paris, have signed a petition by France Terre d'Asile against forced deportations to Afghanistan.
"The security situation in that country has markedly worsened in recent years," the petition reads. "Nothing can ensure people's safety, not even the international coalition in Afghanistan."
France and Britain have the biggest missions in Afghanistan after the United States and along with Germany, with a roughly 8,800-strong British contingent and about 3,000 French troops.
(Additional reporting by Clement Guillou; Editing by Dominic Evans)
