LONDON, United Kingdom – Britain and France are ending their pilot agreement for returning some migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats, with the United Kingdom confirming that the arrangement will no longer process new cases as the two governments fail to agree on an extension.
The agreement, formally known as the UK-France Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys, established a reciprocal system under which eligible people who arrived in Britain by small boat could be returned to France, while an equivalent number of asylum seekers with qualifying links to the UK could enter Britain through legal routes.
The pilot was due to expire on Oct. 1 after having been extended earlier this year. France has declined to extend it in its current bilateral form, while negotiations have included French calls for a broader arrangement involving the European Union.
Pilot stops accepting new cases
The UK Home Office confirmed that the pilot is no longer processing new cases.
However, people already detained under the arrangement can still be returned to France. The Home Office said removal flights would continue over the coming weeks while Britain uses lessons from the pilot to accelerate returns of people who have no legal right to remain in the country.
The government has also established a Small Boats Returns Taskforce to pursue alternative mechanisms for returning migrants.
The ending of the pilot therefore does not represent an immediate halt to all UK-France removals. Instead, the reciprocal exchange mechanism is being closed to new cases while existing cases continue through the system.
More than 1,000 people returned
The pilot began operationally in August 2025.
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UK Home Office figures covering Aug. 6, 2025, through June 30, 2026, recorded 1,087 people returned from Britain to France and 1,117 people transferred from France to Britain under the reciprocal arrangement.
The Home Office’s figures define an “OUT” case as a person who arrived in Britain by small boat from France, was identified as falling within the pilot’s scope and was subsequently returned to France.
The corresponding “IN” cases were people transferred from France after completing eligibility, documentation and security checks.
More recent reporting indicates that the number of completed returns had risen to more than 1,400 by the end of September, with a broadly comparable number transferred to Britain.
France sought a wider European framework
The disagreement over the future of the pilot has centered partly on its bilateral nature.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has previously said France should not bear responsibility for the arrangement alone and argued that a broader agreement between the EU and Britain would provide a framework for cooperation on returns and responsibility-sharing.
The French position reflects the fact that Britain left the EU and is no longer part of the Dublin system that previously allowed participating European countries to return asylum seekers to the country where they first arrived.
France has treated the bilateral arrangement as a time-limited pilot rather than a permanent replacement for a wider European returns mechanism.
Britain wanted the pilot to continue
The British government had indicated that it wanted the arrangement to continue.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed Channel crossings during their Sept. 3 meeting in London. The two governments said they wanted to strengthen cooperation and expand efforts to reduce dangerous crossings.
British officials nevertheless acknowledged operational difficulties in scaling up the reciprocal system.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government had encountered constraints including immigration detention capacity and described the number of people processed through the scheme as relatively small. She also said the government would use the experience of the pilot to improve future returns.
Channel crossings remain a separate issue
The end of the agreement does not mean that small-boat crossings have stopped.
UK government figures cited in late September showed that 19,135 people had crossed the English Channel by small boat between Jan. 1 and Sept. 27, a 42% decrease from the corresponding period the previous year.
The British government has attributed the decline in part to increased cooperation with France and measures targeting people-smuggling operations.
Separately, the UK Home Office said in August that French authorities had prevented 185 small-boat crossing events between April 27 and Aug. 2 under a separate UK-France cooperation initiative involving French police units funded by Britain.
Those prevention measures are distinct from the reciprocal migrant-return pilot that is now ending.
Existing removals will continue
Although new cases are no longer being accepted, people already selected for return remain subject to the existing process.
The Home Office said flights would continue for migrants currently detained under the arrangement, meaning the practical wind-down of the scheme will extend beyond its formal Oct. 1 end date.
The government has said it will apply lessons from the pilot to other returns arrangements, including efforts to accelerate the removal of people who have no legal right to remain in Britain.
The precise form of future UK-France cooperation remains under discussion.
For now, the reciprocal “one in, one out” mechanism has reached the end of its pilot period, with Britain pursuing other return arrangements and France pressing for a broader European framework.
Reporting Credit: UK Home Office and Border Security Command; UK Prime Minister’s Office; French Interior Ministry; UK-France Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys.
