The UK and France have been forced to revise their 'one in, one out' treaty after discovering that people smugglers were using lorries to bring deported migrants back to Britain. The original agreement, signed in July 2023, allowed the UK to return small boat arrivals to France in exchange for accepting the same number of asylum seekers from France.
However, a loophole emerged when migrants removed under the deal re-entered the UK illegally via lorries. At least four such cases were recorded in March, following two in autumn 2023. To address this, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez agreed to extend the treaty's scope to cover any returning migrant entering the UK illegally, regardless of method.
In a letter to Nuñez, Mahmood proposed adding the objective of 'deterring clandestine returns to the UK by individuals previously transferred to France under the agreement.' The Home Office created a new classification of 'returnee case' to close the loophole. Since the treaty took effect on 6 August 2023, the UK has removed 921 migrants to France, representing 3.5% of all small boat arrivals, while accepting 896 asylum seekers from France.
The pilot scheme, originally due to end on 11 June, has been extended until 1 October. Channel crossings have fallen by about a third this year, partly attributed to weather. In April, the UK and France confirmed a new £662m deal to curb crossings. A Home Office spokesperson stated: 'Under our returns agreement with France, we have already removed more than 900 illegal migrants from British soil.'
