The UK and France have revised their 'one in, one out' asylum agreement after migrants removed to France under the deal were found returning to Britain, often via lorries. The original treaty, signed in July 2024, allowed the UK to return small boat arrivals to France in exchange for accepting an equal number of asylum seekers from France.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez agreed to extend the treaty's scope to cover any previously deported migrant who re-enters the UK illegally, regardless of method. This closes a loophole exploited by people smugglers who used lorries to bring deportees back.
Since the treaty took effect on 6 August 2024, the UK has removed 921 migrants to France—3.5% of all small boat arrivals—and accepted 896 asylum seekers from France. However, at least six deportees were known to have returned, including four in a two-week period in March 2025.
In a letter to Nuñez, Mahmood proposed adding the objective of 'deterring clandestine returns' to the agreement. One deportee told the Guardian that smugglers used force to send him back to the UK in a lorry, saying: 'The smugglers have guns, they control everything.'
The pilot scheme, originally ending on 11 June 2025, has been extended to 1 October 2025. Channel crossings have fallen by about a third this year, partly due to weather. A Home Office spokesperson said the returns contribute to nearly 70,000 illegal migrants removed from July 2024 to March 2026.
