LONDON — The Home Office is still putting asylum seekers on to planes to France weeks after the controversial scheme to remove them ended, the Guardian reported on Sunday. The 'one in, one out' scheme was announced by French President Emmanuel Macron and then-British prime minister Keir Starmer in July 2025. It aimed to deter small boats crossing the Channel to the UK from northern France, with some asylum seekers arriving in Britain forcibly returned to France while a similar number in northern France were brought legally to the UK.

Source: The Guardian via BritBrief, Nov 1, 2026

The scheme ended on October 1, 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 November 17. Home Office sources said returns of the remainder of the 'one in, one out' cohort were continuing after the deal had ended. That continuation was signalled by the department itself when the scheme expired: a Home Office spokesperson told the BBC the pilot was 'no longer processing new cases' but that 'flights will continue over the coming weeks to swiftly remove small boat migrants from the UK', InfoMigrants reported on October 1.

Source: BBC via InfoMigrants, Oct 1, 2026

According to freedom of information data cited by the Guardian, almost one-third of the scheme's deportation flights — seven out of 23 — 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 2026. According to evidence 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 £78 million (yaani about £7.8 crore). Some who were sent to France returned to the UK and were then returned to France a second time, incurring a further cost. The wider three-year deal with France was worth £662 million (yaani about £66.2 crore) between 2026 and 2029, and Mahmood had earlier estimated the pilot cost about £56,000 for every person sent back to France.

Oct 1date the 'one in, one out' scheme ended — returns are still continuing a month later, the Guardian reports
Nov 17date of the next scheduled removal flight to France
7 of 23scheme deportation flights cancelled between July and September (freedom of information data)
£78m+cost of removals to France, per the home secretary's evidence to parliament's home affairs committee

Emma Ginn, director of Medical Justice, said 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,' she told the Guardian. Maddie Harris of Humans for Rights Network also questioned the scheme's purpose, saying hundreds of millions of pounds had been transferred to the French government while people still cross.

The returns have not stopped people coming back, the Guardian found. At least seven asylum seekers returned to France have come back to the UK since October 1, with several more reported waiting in northern France — including five or six people from the scheme at the camp known as the 'Jungle' in Dunkirk — to cross back when a favourable weather window is forecast. The Guardian interviewed two men sent to France under the scheme who returned to the UK just days after it finished and whose asylum claims are now being processed in the UK: a Syrian man, who said he was first put back in detention before being released, and an Iranian man, who said he had been tortured and beaten by smugglers in France. Home Office data showed crossings have resumed after a three-week pause: 263 people crossed in three boats on Thursday, followed by 671 in nine boats on Friday. Small-boat arrivals are down by about 40 percent so far this year compared with the same period last year — a similar reduction to that seen in irregular migration to Europe as a whole over the same period, the Guardian noted.