UK Ends 'One In, One Out' Migrant Return Deal With France After Just One Year

The British government has confirmed that its experimental "one in, one out" migration arrangement with France is being wound down, bringing an end to a pilot programme that had been intended to discourage small boat crossings across the English Channel. The announcement marks the closure of a scheme that lasted barely more than twelve months and ultimately returned only a fraction of the people ministers had hoped to remove.

Under the terms of the pilot, Britain was permitted to send back to France a limited number of migrants who had arrived in small boats, while simultaneously accepting an equivalent number of individuals from France who were judged to have a legitimate claim to enter the UK. The arrangement was designed to create a two-way flow that would both remove unauthorised arrivals and offer a legal route to Britain for genuine claimants.

Since the programme began just over a year ago, only about 1,500 people have been transferred back to France, a figure far below the volume that officials had envisaged when the deal was agreed. The BBC has learned that the government would have preferred to keep the scheme running, but concluded that it had failed to reach the necessary scale to justify its continuation.

A Home Office spokesperson said the pilot would no longer process new cases, while confirming that removal flights would carry on for the coming weeks. The spokesperson added that the government would draw on the "lessons learned" from the trial to intensify efforts to return small boat migrants who have no right to remain in the UK.

The spokesperson also emphasised that cooperation with Paris on tackling small boat crossings would continue, pointing to what was described as "real progress", with arrival numbers significantly lower than at the same point last year. The French Interior Ministry confirmed that discussions with London about the terms of exiting the agreement are under way.

The decision follows earlier hints from Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who told MPs this month that the scheme "had not been without its challenges". She acknowledged that the numbers involved remained "relatively small" and said the greater operational difficulty had been scaling up removals into the French system on a weekly basis.

However, Mahmood also noted that the United Nations and other agencies had reported that some migrants were choosing not to board small boats because they believed they might be accepted under the "one in, one out" arrangement, suggesting the policy had exerted some deterrent effect even as its practical reach remained limited. Earlier in September, the Home Office disclosed that the scheme was costing around £56,000 for every person returned to France.

The ending of the pilot comes against a backdrop of shifting Channel crossing figures. Between 1 January and 27 September this year, 19,135 people crossed the English Channel by small boat, a decline of 42% compared with the same period in 2025, when 32,188 made the journey. Annual totals peaked at 45,755 in 2022 before falling to 29,437 in 2023 and rising again to 36,816 in 2024 and 41,472 in 2025.

Despite the recent reduction, small boat arrivals remain the most common method by which people are detected entering the UK illegally since 2020, and the vast majority of those who arrive this way claim asylum. Under international law, claimants are permitted to remain in the country while their applications are assessed. Such arrivals accounted for 40% of asylum applications in the year to June 2026.

Overcrowding on the boats has made crossings increasingly dangerous. Vessels arriving between late September 2025 and late September 2026 carried an average of 67 people, more than double the figure recorded in 2021. The United Nations has estimated that at least 84 people died attempting the crossing in 2024. Experts warn that the packed conditions significantly raise the risk of tragedy.

Nationality data for the period from July 2025 to June 2026 shows Eritreans made up 18% of all arrivals, followed by people from Sudan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iran. In the same twelve-month window, another 4,712 people were detected entering the UK without permission through other routes, including concealment in vehicles, ferry travel and airports, a decline of 17% year on year. The overall number of people living in Britain illegally after arriving on valid visas remains unknown.

The government has repeatedly pledged to "smash the gangs" responsible for organising the crossings as its central strategy for reducing the numbers. The cancellation of the French pilot leaves ministers searching for alternative mechanisms to manage returns, even as they point to the sharp year-on-year drop in arrivals as evidence that their broader approach is bearing fruit.