Asylum seekers still being sent to France weeks after UK-France scheme ended
The UK Home Office is still putting asylum seekers on planes to France weeks after the "one in, one out" scheme ended, according to the Guardian.
The scheme was announced in July 2025 by French President Emmanuel Macron and the then UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. Its aim was to discourage people from crossing the English Channel in small boats. Under it, some people who arrived in the UK this way were sent back to France, while a similar number were admitted to the UK through a legal route. The scheme ended on 1 October.
The Guardian reported that the Home Office is understood to still be detaining dozens of people from the "one in, one out" group. Officials chartered a plane to France on a Wednesday shortly before 1 November for a group thought to have arrived by small boat before the scheme ended. A second Home Office flight for the same group is scheduled for 17 November.
Freedom of information data cited by the Guardian show that seven of 23 deportation flights under the scheme were cancelled between July and September 2026. At least seven asylum seekers who had been returned to France have come back to the UK since 1 October. The newspaper interviewed a Syrian and an Iranian man who were sent to France under the scheme, returned to the UK days after it finished, and are having their asylum claims processed in Britain.
The arrangement has faced changes and legal challenges. The UK and France rewrote the treaty in June 2026 because of concerns about people re-entering the UK after being removed, the Guardian reported. In July, Reuters reported that the UK had lost a court case over asylum seeker rejections linked to the deal. The BBC reported in September that the scheme costs on average £56,000 per person. Under the scheme, lone children should not be sent to France, though a February Guardian report said that this rule may not have been reliably applied.
Crossings across the Channel have fallen this year. According to the Guardian, small-boat crossings are down by about 40% so far in 2026 compared with the same period last year. Home Office data showed that 263 people in three boats crossed on one Thursday, and 671 people in nine boats crossed the next day, Friday, after three weeks with no crossings.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood oversees the Home Office, the government department responsible for immigration. The next Home Office flight to France under the scheme is set for 17 November.
