An immigrant has returned to the United Kingdom by small boat after being sent to France under the government’s ‘one-in, one-out’ pilot scheme, highlighting the collapse of the UK’s border policy.
The man, who said he sought asylum in Britain because France was unsafe for him, alleged that he had been a victim of modern slavery in northern France. “If I had felt that France was safe for me I would never have returned to the UK,” he said. After being sent back, “we were taken to a shelter in Paris,” but he “didn’t dare to go out because I was afraid for my life.” He described smugglers as “very dangerous,” saying they “always carry weapons and knives.”
Home Office sources confirmed that one person deported under the UK-France treaty has returned to Britain. His case comes amid a record surge in small boat arrivals, undermining claims that the pilot scheme is working as a deterrent.
Reports confirmed that more migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats so far in 2025 than in the whole of 2024, hitting last year’s number more than two months early into the year. The ‘one-in, one-out’ agreement with France has seen just 42 illegal migrants removed, while the UK has accepted 16 asylum seekers in return.
GB News quoted Centre for Migration Control Research Director Robert Bates as saying,
The returns deal with France is in chaos. It has failed to deter anyone and migrants have now realised they can simply try again and come back across the channel. Far from being a deterrent, this scheme is simply increasing the demand. The winners will be the people smugglers.
The Home Office said it “will not accept any abuse of our borders,” insisting that anyone re-entering illegally after removal “will be removed.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the “shameful” figures reflected “a border crisis” inherited from the previous government. “This government is taking action,” she said, claiming that 35,000 people had been removed so far and promising to “go further and faster.”
However, the numbers show the policy is failing. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called the one-in, one-out system a “total abject failure,” and accused PM Keir Starmer of handling the policy so poorly that the illegal immigrants are “laughing at us.” Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it had turned into “the world’s first revolving-door deportation scheme.”
Since the agreement took effect in early August, more than 10,000 migrants have crossed the Channel, while only a few dozen have been returned—one of whom has now made it back again.
