UK-France migrant returns pilot stops taking new cases as governments discuss exit

The UK-France ‘one in, one out’ migrant pilot stopped processing new cases on 30 September 2026, the Home Office told the BBC. The change ends new entries to an arrangement that let Britain return some people who crossed the English Channel by small boat while admitting an equal number from France through a legal route. Returns flights for people already detained are expected to continue in the coming weeks.

The French Interior Ministry told the BBC that the two governments were discussing the terms of their exit from the agreement. Those terms matter to people already in the returns process: the Home Office has announced further flights but has not specified how many people they will carry or when the last flight will take place.

What changes under the UK-France agreement

The Home Office described the pilot as a reciprocal arrangement. For each eligible person returned from the UK to France, an equivalent number could be transferred from France to the UK. Its published description says people transferred to Britain underwent eligibility, identity and security checks before travelling. People returned to France had arrived in Britain by small boat and fallen within the agreed readmission arrangements.

The agreement came into force on 6 August 2025, when operational delivery began, according to the Home Office. Its stated aims were to deter dangerous crossings, disrupt organised immigration crime and save lives. Those were the government’s objectives for the pilot; the operational totals alone cannot show whether it met them.

How many people were transferred and returned?

Home Office operational figures show 1,087 completed returns from the UK to France and 1,117 transfers into the UK between the start of the pilot and 30 June 2026. Those figures have different cut-off dates from the BBC’s later report that around 1,500 people had been removed to France since the scheme began. The BBC figure is a more recent reported estimate, while the published Home Office table covers only activity through June.

The distinction between a completed return and a case in progress is consequential. The Home Office says its return total counts people who reached France under the agreement, rather than referrals, detentions or readmission requests. It also cautions that its operational figures can be revised when records are corrected, duplicate applications are identified or cases are reclassified.

Activity in the published figures rose during the final months they cover. The Home Office recorded 142 returns in April, 218 in May and 264 in June, compared with 49 in February. These monthly counts show the pace of completed returns during that period. They do not establish how many people remained in the process when new cases stopped being accepted in September.

Why the pilot is ending remains an open question

The BBC reported that the UK government would have liked the pilot to continue but felt it had not reached the desired scale. Earlier in September, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs that the numbers were still relatively small and that scaling up weekly removals into the French system had been operationally difficult, according to the BBC. The governments have not announced final exit terms in the statements reported so far.

The BBC also reported 19,135 small-boat arrivals between 1 January and 27 September 2026, 42% fewer than in the same period of 2025. The Home Office spokesperson pointed to a decline from last year when discussing continued cooperation with France. That comparison does not establish what effect, if any, the pilot itself had on the number of crossings.

NewsJaws previously covered the reported cost per return under the scheme. That earlier account concerned the pilot while it was operating; the new development is the decision to stop taking cases and negotiate its exit. The earlier report is available as the account of the scheme’s cost.

What happens to returns now?

For now, the Home Office says flights will continue over the coming weeks for small-boat migrants already detained. Its statement distinguishes those continuing removals from the intake of new cases, which has stopped. It does not give a timetable for completing the existing cases, a total for those affected or a date on which flights under the pilot will cease.

France’s Interior Ministry said it was discussing the terms of exit with Britain. Until those terms are announced, the two governments’ statements establish the immediate operational change but leave the formal end of the agreement unresolved. They also leave open what, if anything, will take the place of the one-for-one transfer arrangement.