FRANCE will have the option to select which migrants to accept under the one-in, one-out agreement, raising concerns that the UK may end up with individuals who have concerning backgrounds.
France will receive information about each migrant eligible for return, allowing them to decline those with criminal histories or viewed as security threats.
Both France and the UK will have a veto over which of the small boat migrants they take in.
Britain will take into account if the migrants have a connection to the country and if they have lived here before.
Lucy Moreton from the Immigration Service Union, one of two unions that represent Border Force staff, slammed the plan.
She mentioned to The Times: “If we come across someone identifiable from our database as a known offender, why would France take them back? They remain our issue.”
While saying it is a “good start” to tackling the small boats crisis, she warned that migrants will likely become more sneaky in their methods.
Revealed in the Plan:
- Migrants arriving via small boat will be detained and returned to France in short order
- A one-in, one-out system will operate with migrants sent back to France in exchange for asylum seekers
- The plan is merely a pilot scheme – which could be canned if it doesn’t work
- Only 50 a week will be sent packing – a fraction of the thousands crossing into the UK
There may be an uptick in migrants stowing away in cars and lorries, or taking more dangerous routes into the country.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron confirmed a one-in-one-out deal will return small boat migrants to France – but only 50 a week will be sent packing.
The PM hailed the “groundbreaking” returns’ scheme as “aggressive” – but admitted it was merely a pilot plan that would deal with just a fraction of the migrants trying to cross the Channel every day.
In a joint press conference with the French President, Sir Keir confirmed that in exchange for sending unlawful migrants back, the UK will accept asylum seekers from Calais who have “legitimate claims” and family in Britain.
Only those who haven’t tried to enter the country illegally before will be eligible for the scheme, which will come into force “in weeks”.
The PM hailed the plan as “hard-headed, aggressive action” and boasted that “previous governments tried and failed to secure results like this”.
But the agreement is the equivalent of just 2,600 returns annually (50 a week), compared with the 44,000 who have arrived since Labour took power a year ago.
And this year alone more than 21,117 migrants have crossed the Channel – a 56 per cent rise on the same period in 2024.
The announcement was also made on the same day as hundreds more migrants crossed the Channel – with photos showing them waving from packed boats.
And at the same time as The Sun’s political correspondent watched in horror with Nigel Farage as the French handed 78 migrants to UK Border Force.
At the Northwood Military Headquarters in Hertfordshire Sir Keir and Mr Macron insisted the deal would help break the business model of the smuggling gangs, with migrants unwilling to pay thousands for a crossing if they could be sent straight back.
But Sir Keir admitted the new deal won’t necessarily end the crisis, saying: “There is no silver bullet here”.
And it was revealed the plan could descend into a legal wrangle – with “returned” migrants able to launch lengthy battles through the courts.
It means the system could get bogged down with ongoing legal cases – and the whole plan thwarted in the same way that Rwanda flights were grounded by lefty lawyers.
Responding to the deal, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp blasted: “Labour’s deal will only return one in every 17 illegal immigrants arriving.
“Allowing 94% of illegal immigrants to stay will make no difference whatsoever and have no deterrent effect.
“This is the latest catastrophic example that when Labour negotiates, the UK loses.
“Starmer’s first move in power was to rip up the Illegal Migration Act, scrap the Rwanda deterrent plan, weaken age checks and reopen the path to citizenship for illegal migrants. This is a green light to people smugglers.
“We’ve had enough of Starmer’s weak and ineffective gimmicks.”
Under the “returns pilot”, for the very first time, small boat migrants will be “detained and returned to France in short order”.
The selected migrants – all adults – will be handed notices informing them that they are due to be sent back to France.
Money for the returns will come from existing Home Office budgets.
In exchange for every return, a different asylum seeker will be allowed into Britain through a “safe route, controlled and legal, subject to strict security checks”.
Sir Keir said: “This will show others trying to make the same journey that it will be in vain and the jobs they’ve been promised in the UK will no longer exist because of the nationwide crackdown we’re delivering on illegal working, which is on a completely unprecedented scale.”
Addressing the press conference, Mr Macron couldn’t help a dig at Brexit, blaming the divorce from Europe, rather than lazy French cops, for the surge in channel crossings.
Despite Britain having paid £770 million to border patrol officers in Calais, the French President whinged: “We must above all adapt the response to Brexit.
“It’s that we sold a lie to the British people which is the problem with Europe… The problems become Brexit with your government and for the first time in nine years we’re providing a response.”
The announcement of the deal concluded a three-day State Visit to the UK by Mr Macron, who also dined with King Charles and members of the royal family.
