Closure of ‘one in, one out’ small boats pilot scheme for returns of asylum seekers to France

News media reported that the Home Office said last week that the 'one in, one out' small boats pilot scheme allowing the return of asylum seekers to France ended on Thursday, 1 October.

Under the terms of an agreement signed in July last year, asylum seekers who arrived in the UK by small boat could be returned to France in exchange for another individual being transferred legally from France to the UK.

Last week, BBC News quoted a Home Office spokesperson as saying: "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. However, flights will continue over the coming weeks to swiftly remove small boat migrants from the UK, and we will use lessons learned from the pilot to accelerate efforts to return small boat migrants with no right to remain in the UK."

There was no press release or statement published on GOV.UK, though the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme Home Office guidance was updated on 1 October with a notice to say it had now been closed to new applications.

Sky News noted that the scheme had been set up to continue for three years, but a clause allowed France and the UK to end it earlier.

According to BBC News, the UK Government wanted the scheme to continue, but felt it did not reach the desired scale. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Home Affairs Committee last month that over 1,400 asylum seekers were returned to France during the scheme's operation from August 2025,

Le Monde reported that France was eager to end the scheme while the UK made every effort to extend it.

According to the Guardian, France wanted to end the pilot because it did not want to shoulder the burden of accepting those returned from the UK alone, and instead wanted other European countries to share responsibility. The French interior minister said the agreement should have been made between the EU and the UK.

Speaking to the Home Affairs Committee last month, the Home Secretary said: "This was always a pilot programme. It was designed to try to prove the concept that it is possible to have this kind of arrangement between us and the French, not just as an agreement politically, but to operationally deliver it and to overcome legal hurdles. … The aim was to prove the concept that such an agreement can work and that it is possible to provide a safe and legal route into the country from the north of France and, therefore, degrade the boats trade, as it were."

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned last week that the pilot scheme had inflicted serious harm on hundreds of asylum seekers not be replicated with France or form the basis of any wider agreement with the EU.

MSF's Sophie McCann said: "As discussions between UK Prime Minister and EU Member States are being planned for the coming months, our message is clear: a 'One In, One Out' style returns deal should not be Europeanised. It has generated huge suffering and has not prevented deaths at sea. People continue to die at the UK-France border. Governments on both sides of the Channel and in Europe need to face up to reality. They need to completely reshape migration policies to focus on protection and care rather than violence and exclusion."

Right to Remain has also warned of uncertainty for people affected by the scheme's closure. It says those who have already been told they will be removed to France may still be removed, although it is unclear whether planned removals will take place under the scheme or under other rules.

Right to Remain adds that people arriving in the UK from France by small boat and claiming asylum after the closure of the scheme will have their cases considered under the standard asylum process.