UK-France Channel migrant exchange deal scrapped: London
A year-old deal between France and Britain to return migrants crossing the Channel illegally on small boats has come to an end, the UK interior ministry said Wednesday.
"The government's pilot with France to remove asylum seekers in exchange for an equal number of legal migrants is no longer processing new cases," the Home Office said, confirming the end of the so-called "one in, one out" deal launched last August.
The French interior ministry told AFP earlier on Wednesday it was in talks to "withdraw" from the agreement, which was due to expire on Thursday.
The deal was agreed under former UK prime minister Keir Starmer last year in a bid to help a post-Brexit reset by easing what had become a major source of tension between the neighbours.
The pilot scheme was initially agreed to last for a year and had been extended until October 1. But the deal faced setbacks including legal challenges and French reluctance to renew it.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in June that he had "clearly announced" to Britain that this "pilot agreement... was not intended to be renewed beyond October 1, 2026."
And the newspaper Le Monde said current UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham had pressed French President Emmanuel Macron during talks in September to keep the deal alive but "Paris was in a hurry to end the cooperation on controlling migrant flows."
London would have "willingly seen it continue", a UK government source said, adding the pilot "did not reach our desired scale".
UK interior minister Shabana Mahmood acknowledged in parliament this month that the deal has "not been without its challenges" and "the numbers are still relatively small".
"What has been more operationally difficult is to scale up very large numbers of removals every week into the French system," she added.
- Smugglers jailed -
The deal enabled Britain to deport some small boat arrivals deemed not to have the right to stay.
In return, London was to accept an equal number of migrants from France who were likely to have their asylum claim granted, giving priority to nationalities most vulnerable to smugglers and those with ties in Britain.
According to UK figures, some 1,500 individuals had been returned to France, and just under the same number had in turn been accepted by Britain.
The agreement aimed to target the business model of smugglers who charge migrants huge amounts to make the perilous and sometimes deadly journey.
The deal, which was criticised by rights groups who said it was treating humans as commodities, initially targeted 2,600 exchanges.
On Monday, three migrants, including a 10-year-old boy, died off the French coast while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said.
At least 22 people have died this year trying to cross the Channel, according to an AFP tally based on official French and British sources.
As of Tuesday, some 19,196 people had crossed the Channel from France so far in 2026, down 42 percent year-on-year.
A French court on Wednesday sentenced six men to between six and 10 years in prison over the deaths of at least 31 people in the Channel in November 2021, the deadliest accident involving migrants trying to reach the English coast.
The court said the tragedy was caused by "individuals driven by greed, with utter disregard for human life".
E.Kaleo--HStB
