Many more small boat migrants could have been deported under the ‘one in, one out’ deal if France had been more ‘transparent’, a report has suggested.
The review published today found Home Office officials were often left ‘frustrated’ after French counterparts rejected taking back selected migrants without saying why.
John Tuckett, the UK’s Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, said refusal rates were ‘as high as 50 per cent’ at times and that this had ‘a significant impact on the numbers that could be removed to France‘.
It will fuel suspicions that stopping the boats is not a priority for Paris and that it never intended to fully co-operate with the scheme willingly.
The deal was struck by ex-premier Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron last summer but officially expired last month as the Élysée Palace wanted to end it.
A total of 1,087 migrants were returned to France between August 2025 and June 30, 2026, according to the latest figures, with the UK accepting 1,117 in return.
Sir Keir had wanted the scheme to act as a deterrent to stem the flow of migrants crossing the Channel.
But over the same period, nearly 28,000 migrants arrived in the UK on small boats, meaning only around 4 per cent of arrivals were sent back to France under the scheme.
A migrant was recently pictured gesturing as the small boat he was on left Gravelines, in northern France, before attempting to cross the English Channel
The ‘one in, one out’ deal was struck by ex-premier Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron last summer but officially expired last month
In his final report into its effectiveness, Mr Tuckett said that ‘an area for improvement would be greater engagement’ between both sides, adding: ‘Caseworking teams in the UK reported frustrations with not knowing the criteria which French officials applied to the cases that they rejected.’
While French officials said there were ‘issues with the quality and content of data’ they received from the Home Office, the report concluded: ‘The criteria and basis on which the French authorities accepted or rejected individuals referred under the OUT route were not transparent to UK caseworkers… UK caseworkers reported receiving binary yes/no responses without sufficient explanation to identify consistent patterns in what drove those decisions. This limited the effectiveness of the referral process.’
It added: ‘The criteria used by France in accepting or rejecting candidates for the OUT route had a significant impact on the numbers that could be removed to France.’
Alluding to the fact the scheme may not have been a priority for Paris, it added: ‘There were some variations in perspective among senior staff on France’s approach to the agreement.
‘In particular, there was a sense that the issue of small boat crossings was viewed as affecting the UK more directly, alongside an indication that French partners were also focused on advancing broader, Europe-wide returns discussions.’
Paris has long wanted to replace the scheme with an EU-wide initiative which would see Britain send migrants back to several countries across the EU and take around the same number in return from those nations.
Today’s report added that groups and lawyers acting on behalf of migrants had lodged around 100 judicial reviews against the scheme in a bid to halt it, but that these were successfully defeated, largely because France is deemed a safe country.
Tory shadow home secretary Chris Philp blasted: ‘First the government laughably claimed they would ‘smash the [smuggling] gangs’. Now their one in one out deal has failed.
‘France has become a launchpad for thousands of illegal Channel crossings, yet its Government seems more interested in washing its hands of the problem than stopping the boats on its own beaches – despite Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood handing them £660 million of our money.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Our work with France to tackle small boat crossings is bearing fruit. Numbers are down significantly on last year and summer arrivals were the lowest in six years.
‘We welcome the Inspector’s recognition of the strong operational delivery of the UK-France pilot, which successfully demonstrated that a returns arrangement of this kind can work.
‘Whilst the pilot has concluded, we are taking forward lessons learned and we have introduced a new Small Boats Returns Taskforce which will accelerate efforts to return small boat migrants.’
