UK-France 'one in, one out' migrant deal scrapped

A UK-French pilot scheme known as "one in, one out," set up to cut the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats, has been scrapped.

The Home Office said in a statement on Wednesday that the deal is "no longer processing new cases", adding "we continue to work with France to relentlessly tackle small boat crossings, and we've made real progress".

Under the plan, migrants arriving in the UK after making the trip across the Channel, could be detained and returned to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers who applied through a safe and legal route.

Around 1,500 individuals were sent back to France and a similar number transferred to the UK as part of the scheme, which, though set up to last three years, had a clause allowing the parties to end it earlier.

Deportation flights will continue in the coming weeks for those who have already been detained, the Home Office said.

The discontinuation of the deal follows a sharp fall in the number of people making the crossing in 2026 to a five-year low for a variety of reasons, including increased police patrols and enhanced surveillance in northern France.

The roughly 19,000 who have made the crossing this year is a 40% drop compared to this point in 2025.

The danger of crossings was illustrated Monday when a 10-year-old child and two women died, apparently trampled to death on a boat packed with more than 100 people.

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Cooperation on stopping the boats stalled after the UK's split from the European Union in 2020, but in the past few years the UK and France have struck several agreements to get a grip on the issue.

Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue in the UK in recent years.

Anger at the seeming inability of successive governments to get a handle on the issue has been behind a series of demonstrations and riots and has fueled the rise of Reform UK.

(c) Sky News 2026: UK-France 'one in, one out' migrant deal scrapped