The Home Office is still putting asylum seekers on to planes to France weeks after the controversial scheme to remove them ended, the Guardian has learned.
The “one in, one out” scheme was announced by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the former prime minister Keir Starmer in July ۲۰۲۵. It aimed to deter small boats crossing the Channel to the UK from northern France, with some asylum seekers arriving here forcibly returned to France while a similar number in northern France were brought legally to the UK.
The scheme ended on ۱ October, but the Home Office is understood to still be detaining dozens of people. Officials chartered a plane to France on Wednesday for a group of people who are thought to have arrived on small boats in the UK before the scheme ended. A second flight is scheduled for ۱۷ November.
Home Office sources said returns of the remainder of the “one in, one out” cohort were continuing after the deal had ended. According to freedom of information data, almost one-third of the scheme’s deportation flights – seven out of ۲۳ – were cancelled between July and September this year, more than double the total of cancelled deportation flights to France in the first six months of ۲۰۲۶.
Emma Ginn, the director of Medical Justice, said that asylum seekers are still being held in detention centres in preparation for forced removal to France. “Even though the scheme has been abandoned, vulnerable people still held under its powers continue to suffer immensely due to the severe harm known to be caused by immigration detention being compounded by the prospect of imminent return to France, where many have reported experiencing violence and abuse at the hands of smugglers.”
The scheme has been controversial because it does not appear to have had the intended deterrent effect on small boat crossings, and many asylum seekers have reported being left homeless or abused by smugglers. Some were told they would be sent back to other EU countries they passed through on their journeys to the UK. While small boat crossings have reduced by approximately ۴۰% so far this year compared with the same period last year, there has been a similar level of reduction in irregular migration to Europe over the same period.
Home Office data showed that after no crossings for three weeks, ۲۶۳ people crossed in three boats on Thursday.
The Guardian understands that at least seven asylum seekers returned to France have come back to the UK since ۱ October, with reports of several more waiting in northern France to cross back to the UK in the next few days when a favourable weather window is forecast.
The Guardian has interviewed two asylum seekers who the UK sent to France during the scheme who have returned to UK since ۱ October and are having their asylum claims processed in the UK.
The first is Syrian and the second Iranian. Both returned just days after one in, one out finished.
“At first the Home Office put me back in detention,” said the Syrian man. “They said they were looking for a safe third country to deport me to. But there wasn’t one, so they released me and my asylum claim is now being looked at in the UK. I am very relieved that I am no longer locked up and am safe in the UK.”
The Iranian man said he had been planning to return to the UK for several months as he had been abused by smugglers in France and wanted to escape as soon as he could.
“I was tortured and beaten by the smugglers. I was too afraid to go outside in France. People have no idea how difficult the life is in France for people like us sent back by the UK.”
Maddie Harris of Humans for Rights Network questioned the purpose of the scheme as hundreds gather along the French coast waiting to cross the Channel. “Hundreds of millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money has been transferred to the French government. Men, women and children are teargassed and beaten on the beaches, after being subjected to repetitive, violent evictions from living sites, yet people still cross to the UK. This money has done nothing but cause harm. Our government fails to acknowledge the most obvious policy to prevent dangerous crossings: accessible safe routes for all to claim asylum in the UK.”
According to evidence the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, gave to a recent session of parliament’s cross-party home affairs committee, removing people to France has cost at least £۷۸m. Some who were sent to France returned to UK and were then returned to France a second time, incurring a further cost.
One asylum seeker who was sent back to France under the scheme and is now in the area known as the “Jungle” in Dunkirk, a camp where asylum seekers pitch tents while waiting to cross the Channel, told the Guardian: “There are at least five or six people from one in, one out waiting in the Jungle at the moment to cross the Channel back to the UK. The place is so full at the moment of people waiting to cross there is no space for people to lie down and sleep. The Home Office has not stopped people reaching the UK, but both the smugglers and the French government have made a lot of money out of this scheme.”
Another, who said he was ۱۷ years old, explained he had been caught by police when trying to board a lorry to cross the Channel a few days ago but would continue to try to reach the UK.
“It is very dangerous to get here but we have no choice. Somehow we will handle it.”
