Asylum seekers still being sent to France under ‘one in one out’ weeks after scheme ended

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 2025. 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 1 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 17 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 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. 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.

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 40% 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, 263 people crossed in three boats on Thursday and 671 people in nine boats on Friday.

The Guardian understands that at least seven asylum seekers returned to France have come back to the UK since 1 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 1 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. 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.