UK‑France ‘One in, One out’ migrant scheme scrapped
The cabinet has decided to end the Home Office pilot that swapped small‑boat arrivals for returns to France, after the pilot managed just 1,500 deportations in 12 months.
In a statement Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the scheme had “not been without its challenges” and did not reach the desired scale. She added the ministry would use the lessons learned to accelerate other removal flights.
The pilot required the UK to send a group of asylum seekers to France in exchange for an equal number of people believed to have legitimate claims to stay in Britain. Only around 1,500 people have been deported to France since the scheme began a year ago.
Despite the government's intention, the numbers remain small. Small‑boat crossings from January 2025 to September 2026 were 19,135 — a 42% drop from 32,188 recorded a year earlier. These crossings still account for a sizeable share of asylum applications, with roughly 40% of new claims in the 2025‑2026 period coming from boat arrivals.
The UK remains committed to limiting illegal crossings, with the Home Office noting that operational difficulty meant scaling up large numbers of removals each week into the French system was impractical. Flights to remove small‑boat migrants will continue for the coming weeks, with lessons from the pilot informing future actions.
French officials have also signalled a willingness to negotiate new terms for the agreement – the Interior Ministry stating that it was "discussing the terms of exit from the agreement with the British".
For more on small‑boat trends and the safety risks involved, see the BBC’s interactive visual dashboard. » Explore the small‑boat data.
The decision underlines a broader debate about the right balance between humane treatment of asylum seekers and the practical limits of border security. It also raises questions about the future of cross‑Channel migration in a climate‑changing world where sea levels and weather patterns may drive more people to seek safer coasts.
