PARIS (Diya TV) — Britain has stopped accepting new cases under its “one in, one out” migration agreement with France as the pilot reaches its scheduled end. The Home Office confirmed the decision Wednesday but said return flights would continue in the coming weeks for migrants already detained under the scheme.
A French Interior Ministry source told Reuters that Paris did not want to extend the pilot and that officials were negotiating its closure with Britain. The ministry declined to explain France’s decision.
The arrangement allowed Britain to return some migrants who crossed the English Channel by small boat to France. In exchange, Britain accepted an equal number of asylum seekers through a legal route, prioritizing vulnerable applicants and people with family or other ties to the country.
The scheme began in August last year. British figures through the end of June show that officials returned slightly more than a thousand people to France and admitted a similar number through the legal route. Returns accounted for about four percent of small-boat arrivals during that period, Euronews reported.
Britain extended the pilot through the summer to test it during the busiest crossing period. In a July parliamentary response, the government described the arrangement as one part of its broader cooperation with France. Officials said they assessed cases individually, including migrants’ vulnerability and suitability for removal.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has advocated a broader European approach to irregular migration. He told lawmakers in June that France should not bear sole responsibility for controlling onward movement toward Britain.
Channel crossings fell by more than forty percent through late September compared with the same period last year, according to British data cited by Reuters. The figures do not establish how much the pilot contributed to that decline.
