Report: Britain Kept Sending Asylum Seekers to France After the Deal Ended
Dozens reportedly remain detained for removal under the expired one in, one out arrangement. The terms governing those cases now matter as another flight is reportedly scheduled for November 17.
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by Sami Haddad
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Britain continued detaining asylum seekers and forcibly returning people to France weeks after the countries' one in, one out arrangement ended, according to a Guardian report published on November 1.
The newspaper said officials chartered a flight for October 28 for a group thought to have reached Britain by small boat before the scheme ended on October 1. It described a group as forcibly removed that week. Unnamed Home Office sources said returns of the remaining people covered by the arrangement were continuing, with dozens understood to be detained and another flight scheduled for November 17.
The arrangement paired forced returns to France with a legal route into Britain for a similar number of people from northern France. French President Emmanuel Macron and then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced it in July 2025, aiming to deter small-boat crossings of the Channel.
The reported removals raise an immediate question about what the agreement's end meant for people already selected for return. Ending admission to a scheme and ending every action under it are different things. The terms governing those remaining cases are essential to judging what the Home Office is doing.
The Guardian gives no named Home Office response or legal authority for the post-October 1 detentions and removals, whose lawfulness has not been established.
