UK scraps France deal to curb Channel small-boat crossings

Home Office says no new cases

In a statement, the Home Office said the so-called “one in, one out” deal is “no longer processing new cases”.

The arrangement applied to people who arrived in the UK after making what the source described as the dangerous crossing across the Channel.

Under the plan, such people could be detained and returned to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers who had applied through a safe and legal route.

The programme had resulted in some 1,500 individuals returning to France, while a tad fewer had been transferred to the UK.

Three-year plan ended early

The deal had been intended to last three years.

However, it included a clause allowing the parties to end it earlier.

The scrapping of the pilot matters because it ends a UK-France mechanism specifically designed to reduce the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.

It also halts new processing under an arrangement that linked returns to France with transfers to the UK through a safe and legal route.

Source: South China Morning Post