Labour’s flagship “one in, one out” migrant returns deal with France will end in October, according to French media.
The pilot scheme, which launched last August, sees small boat migrants who make the perilous journey across the Channel deported back to Paris, with other migrants allowed to apply for asylum in the UK from France.
While the UK government does not provide regular updates on the number of people returned under the treaty, more than 900 migrants have been sent back to France so far, the latest numbers show. In exchange, the UK has accepted nearly 900 asylum seekers from France.
The original pilot of the deal with France was due to expire at the end of this month but was extended by three months.
Now French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the flagship scheme will end in October and will not be extended.
Citing a source at the Ministry of the Interior, the French equivalent of the Home Office, the newspaper said that the French want to “Europeanise” the management of the Channel, with a joint European-wide strategy rather than focusing on UK-France agreements.
The European Commission published an action plan on 18 June to prevent departures from Asia, Africa and the Middle East at source and to ramp up returns.
They recognised that the EU needed a “whole-of-route approach” and should “enhance coordination for returns along this route”.
A source at the Ministry of Interior told Le Monde: “This is the first time a Commission document has endorsed the fact that this is a European problem. This is fundamental.”
In a move that will open the door to “return hubs” outside of Europe, the European Parliament this month approved changes to the policy on the return of foreign nationals staying illegally in the EU.
It will be possible for EU countries to move migrants to “return hubs” in another country which has agreed to accept them, mirroring the Rwanda deal set up by the Conservatives. These returns agreements may only be concluded with countries that “uphold human rights, international law, and the principle of non-refoulement [not returning a migrant to their home country if it is too dangerous]”.
EU countries will have to inform the Commission and other member states before they decide to press ahead with third-party returns.
In April, home secretary Shabana Mahmood agreed to pay France £662m over the next three years in an attempt to cut the numbers arriving to the UK.
Around £160m of this money will be spent on new tactics, such as policing to stop “taxi boats” picking up migrants offshore, and is conditional on the success of the French operation.
France will be measured on the number of boats stopped, the number of people smugglers arrested and the number of migrants stopped from boarding dinghies, among other things.
The UK will pay around £501m for more officers on the beaches of northern France and more surveillance technology, despite a previous boost in funding failing to bring the number of Channel crossings down.
There is a summit between the EU and the UK scheduled for 22 July, but it is becoming increasingly unlikely that it will go ahead after Sir Keir Starmer said he would resign on Monday.
A European Commission spokesperson said on Monday that the EU was “reassessing” plans for the summit, which was due to conclude talks on a youth mobility scheme among other things.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
