Keir Starmer’s ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal has seen more migrants arrive in Britain from France than have returned.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, revealed that 281 Channel migrants have been deported back to France in the five-month old scheme.
Since its introduction, 350 have arrived illegally, amounting to a discrepancy of 69 people.
The arrangement allows Britain to send illegal Channel migrants back to France in exchange for taking in an equal number of asylum seekers.
Since mid-September, over 10,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats.
Ms Mahmood acknowledged early challenges with the scheme, noting that the French authorities initially struggled to identify enough migrants willing to enter the UK through the legal route.
“One of the first problems we ran into was we couldn’t find enough people to bring into Britain through the new route because there wasn’t enough knowledge.
“You’ve got to compete with organised immigration crime to get your messages out,” she told LBC.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood unveiled sweeping asylum overhauls
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PAShe added that both governments have addressed some of these issues and expects the number of removals to rise.
“They are already growing”, she said.
“We’ve actually speeded up the removals to France and then taking people in. It started off very small and very slowly because the French authorities and us were concerned about whether we could physically handle implementing the pilot, and whether we had the right infrastructure in place. So we’ve learned lessons as we’ve gone along, as have the French.”
France has consistently described the “one in, one out” scheme as a pilot, estimating only around 50 migrants would be returned weekly, with a review after one year.
The flow of migrants back across to France is still hardly even a trickle, despite Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer’s deal | GETTY
At least two migrants deported under the scheme later returned to the UK via small boats and were subsequently sent back to France.
Last year, 41,472 migrants reached the UK across the Channel, a 12.6 per cent increase from 36,816 in 2024, though still below the 2022 record of 45,755.
Meanwhile, France’s human-rights watchdog instructed police to stop using aggressive tactics such as rubber bullets and tear gas to intercept boats, citing safety concerns.
Despite this, French authorities recently intercepted a people-smuggling boat on a canal before it reached the sea.
Ms Mahmood defended the use of military sites for housing migrants, including moving the first Channel arrivals into an army training camp in Crowborough, Sussex, at night to reduce public-order risks.
She said military sites offer a better alternative to hotels, which people-smuggling gangs have advertised to lure migrants.
Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, criticised the scheme as a failure, describing the net inflow of 70 migrants as “lamentable” and claiming the Home Secretary has “no control of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel.”