France pulls the plug on the ‘one in, one out’ migration deal
Paris says it is negotiating its exit from the pilot returns agreement, which lapses on 1 October, despite Burnham’s personal plea to Emmanuel Macron to keep it going.
France is to end the ‘one in, one out’ migrant returns agreement with Britain, Paris has told Le Monde, confirming it is negotiating the terms of its exit from the pilot scheme that is due to lapse on 1 October.
“We are discussing with the British the terms of exiting the agreement,” the French Interior Ministry told Le Monde. Signed in 2025, the deal created a novel exchange: for every person sent back to France after arriving in Britain by small boat, London would admit an asylum seeker from France through a legal route.
The decision is a blow to Downing Street. Andy Burnham personally urged Emmanuel Macron to continue the programme during their early-September meeting in London, his first bilateral with the French president as prime minister, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been pressing to make the arrangement permanent and increase the number of returns.
We are discussing with the British the terms of exiting the agreement.French Interior Ministry, to Le Monde, 30 September 2026
Paris had made its position clear months ago. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez told a French parliamentary inquiry in June: “For our part, we want to move away from this bilateral relationship with the UK. We consider that France should not have to carry it alone, and that it would be better to integrate it into an agreement between the EU and UK. So I have already clearly told my counterpart that this pilot agreement, which we signed in August 2025, was not intended to be renewed beyond October 1, 2026.”
What Paris wants instead is an EU-wide scheme: Britain could still return Channel migrants to the bloc, but would be expected to take asylum seekers with legitimate claims from across all 27 member states. Nuñez conceded that there was no replacement ready, saying: “It would be naive of me to tell you there will be a mechanism to bridge the gap.”
The pilot’s deterrent effect has been limited. Britain has returned 1,400 small-boat migrants to France, just 4 per cent of the more than 32,000 who have crossed the Channel since the treaty came into force, according to The Times. Crossings overall have fallen 40 per cent since early 2026, though two boats landing undetected in Kent this month embarrassed the Government.
The Home Office declined to comment beyond saying discussions were ongoing. A spokesperson said: “The government’s agreement with France has been extended until autumn. This will ensure we will continue to remove migrants who arrive on small boats over the summer.”
The deal was a first: it established, for the first time, the principle of returning to France migrants turned away from Britain, after France had repeatedly refused such deals until Bruno Retailleau became interior minister in September 2024. Fifteen non-profit organisations challenged the scheme in court, calling it “a system of bargaining that sacrifices access to international protection”, but failed to block it. Ending it also removes a legal route into Britain, however limited it was.
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