The UK’s “one in, one out” migrant agreement with France has seen more asylum seekers arrive than depart in its initial 11 months, official figures reveal.
Home Office data, released on Thursday, shows 1,117 individuals travelled to Britain from France between August 2025 and June 2026, while 1,087 were deported.
The deal, intended to curb Channel crossings, permits the return of UK arrivals to France in exchange for an equivalent number of asylum seekers using safe and legal routes.
These are the first official figures on the pilot scheme since its 6 August 2025 inception.
No migrants were returned or arrived in the deal’s first month. While overall arrivals exceeded deportations, some periods, like March 2026, recorded more transfers out (109) than in (73).
Downing Street previously defended the plan, which was initially set to run until June, insisting the numbers would “fluctuate”.
At the time, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told LBC there were “practical issues around how quickly you can detain people and then get them on a plane and move them out to France” and later vowed to “ramp up the numbers”.
A family of three, including a young child, were the first migrants to arrive in the UK in September under the immigration deal. It is understood they were granted three-month visas with no right to work and no recourse to public funds.
At least two migrants tried to come back to the UK by crossing the Channel again after being returned to France under the deal but were detained and due to be sent back again, officials said.
Last week, Ms Mahmood vowed to fight a High Court ruling which found her decision to cut protections for potential trafficking victims being considered under the scheme was unlawful.
