16 April 2025

The British government has announced that it is holding “discussions” with France to explore fresh “options to increase returns to Europe.” Under a new program, Britain would be able to deport one person to France in exchange for the French sending another person to the UK, focusing on family reunifications.

British officials are reportedly working on a pilot scheme with their French counterparts, which would see the UK accepting individual asylum seekers from France who have legitimate asylum claims in Britain, in exchange for people who have already reached the UK using irregular means, such as crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The program, if adopted, would be based on a one-for-one swap mechanism and would, at least initially, be limited to a certain number of individuals, report Britain’s Financial Times newspaper and the private broadcaster Sky News.

Those who might qualify for the scheme would include people who already have family living in the UK legally, for example parents of children of war refugees from active conflict zones, as Britain hopes to lower irregular immigration in favor of family reunification initiatives.

Those arriving in Britain under the scheme would reportedly be given a permit to be in the country legitimately prior to their arrival.

Britain hopes to drastically reduce the rate of irregular arrivals on its shores in places like the Dover Port (pictured here) even while the numbers of those crossing the Channel continue to increase | Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/picture-alliance

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Another attempt to ‘smash the gangs’

The UK would benefit from the scheme by having more powers to send migrants with no permission to stay in the UK back to France, while France would have the opportunity of effectively passing on the responsibility of care for a legitimate asylum claimant to British authorities.

Both countries would also use the program to try to lower irregular crossings across the English Channel, creating further disincentives for smugglers hope officials.

Senior MP and government minister Lillian Greenwood said that the base idea behind the measure was to find new ways to “stop this appalling and dangerous trade in people that’s happening across the English Channel.”

Speaking on Sky News, Greenwood confirmed that a returns agreement was under discussion with French officials, but would not be drawn on what the deal might look like.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's track record into dismantling smuggling gangs nearly one year into his premiership is regarded as poor | Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/empics/picture-alliance — Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s track record into dismantling smuggling gangs nearly one year into his premiership is regarded as poor | Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/empics/picture-alliance

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed in his election campaign last year to tackle the issue of migrant smuggling by introducing ways to deter migrants from making the dangerous journey to the UK by small boat, thus “smashing the gangs” — one of Starmer’s declared goals in immigration policy.

Starmer had already pledged a year ago to seek out new ways to send undocumented asylum seekers back to France in cases where they used small boats and other clandestine methods to cross the English Channel.

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At the core of Labour’s campaign pledges

The new scheme also falls under the governing Labour Party’s overarching campaign of limiting irregular immigration numbers, which had also been announced in the run-up to the last UK general election.

Labour, who won the election by a landslide, said at the time of the election campaign that it sought to reform the UK’s overall asylum system with “an enforcement unit and a returns agreement with the EU.”

The Strait of Dover forms the narrowest part of the English Channel, with the UK only 33 kilometers apart from France | Source: Google Maps

A Home Office spokesperson said that on the enforcement end, “(w)e have already secured agreement from the French to deploy a new elite unit of officers at the coast, launch a specialist intelligence unit, increase police numbers and introduce new powers for the French authorities to intervene in shallow waters.

“We are intensifying our collaboration with France and other European countries who face the same challenges by exploring fresh and innovative measures to dismantle the business models of the criminal smuggling gangs.”

The statement further read that “(t)he prime minister and home secretary have been clear the UK and France must work closely together to prevent dangerous small boat crossings, particularly on vital law enforcement cooperation.”

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France willing to ‘test’ the pilot scheme

The private Sky News television channel meanwhile cited an unnamed UK government source as saying that it was “safe to assume conversations are happening with a range of countries, including France,” hinting at a potential widening of the scheme to other partners in Europe.

The Financial Times newspaper also reported that there were hopes that the scheme could be replicated, writing: “the arrangement could be expanded into a broader European initiative.”

The daily paper also said that France was “willing to test such a scheme, despite its long-standing preference for an EU-wide arrangement.”

“France’s interest is to discourage migrants from attempting to reach the UK from France,” the French interior ministry said in a statement.

However, extending this pilot scheme to the EU as a whole might be difficult in practise, as many member states — in particular the ones at the forefront of migrant arrivals from outside the bloc such as Greece and Italy — do not wish to accept any returned migrants from the UK.

For years, successive UK governments under various leaderships have been exploring various methods to keep irregular migrants outside the country's borders - with little success | Photo: Steve Parsons/empics/picture alliance — For years, successive UK governments under various leaderships have been exploring various methods to keep irregular migrants outside the country’s borders – with little success | Photo: Steve Parsons/empics/picture alliance

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A replacement policy for the EU Dublin Regulation

Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, it is no longer a signatory of the bloc’s Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that the first EU nation entered by a particular migrant should be in charge of that person’s asylum procedure — even if they move to another EU country and lodge a second claim there.

In practice, however, asylum claim processes often tend to take so long, that the claimant can no longer be sent back to their first point-of-entry in Europe.

The deal between the UK and France, however, would potentially enable British authorities to avoid putting a timestamp on the returns procedures.

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Staggering numbers of boat arrivals

The announcement of the potential deal comes as the UK continues to register record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats to reach its shores.

The first three months of 2025 have been the busiest year for irregular Channel crossings since the British government started to keep records in 2018.

To date, the number of migrants arriving in Britain by boat in 2025 has reached nearly 8,200, marking a rise of 31 percent compared to the same point last year. Overall in 2024, Channel crossings already grew by a quarter compared to the previous year.

At least 10 people are believed to have died during the perilous crossing so far this year.