What is the 'one in one out' asylum deal between UK and France?
The first flights for the 'one in one out' migrant deal between the UK and France could take off on Monday, returning detained asylum seekers who cross the channel in small boats.
The deal, agreed in June, saw the first migrants detained on the August 6.
Despite Starmer's promise to get a grip on Channel crossings when he came into power over a year ago, the total number of people crossing the Channel in small boats this year passed 30,000 in record time.
The 30,000 mark was passed on September 7, the earliest point since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018.
Here, ITV News explains how the 'one in one out' deal will work and why it is attracting controversy.
What is the 'one in one out' deal?
Under the deal, those who arrive in the UK on a small boat will be sent back to France, in exchange for accepting asylum seekers who have a British link, such as family connections.
Asylum seekers who arrive in the UK on small boats and are detained under the scheme are held in immigration removal centres, pending their deportation.
The UK will make a referral to France within three days of their arrival, and the French authorities are expected to respond within two weeks. They will then be returned to France if accepted.
The reciprocal process sees asylum seekers in France apply to come to the UK.
Applicants must satisfy eligibility criteria, including having links to the UK, uploading a passport or other legal identity document, passing stringent security checks and biometric controls.
For each person that the UK returns to France, the UK will take an eligible asylum seeker signed up to the scheme.
The deal will not necessarily see net migration figures fall, but the hope is that it will serve as a deterrent for more people hoping to make the trip by boat.
Anyone who is returned to France will not be eligible for the legal route to the UK, and the Government has said that if anyone tries to re-enter the UK after being returned to France, they will be made a priority to return again.
The Government has been communicating the treaty to migrants in Northern France, warning them not to risk their money or life crossing the channel.
Both the UK and French authorities will also be keeping the operation of the scheme under constant review in these initial weeks to deal with any emerging issues, as well as seeking to ramp up the pace and scale of returns as the agreement progresses.
How many are expected to be returned?
The Government has refused to put a number on how many asylum seekers they think will be returned under the scheme.
The Times reported at the end of August that a group of more than 100 migrants were being held in detention, and could be among the first to be sent back to France.
Reports suggest formal removal directions have been issued to those who arrived in the UK on small boats in August, telling them they will be deported within five days.
A Home Office spokesperson said over the weekend that “under the new UK-France treaty, people crossing in small boats can now be detained and removed to France. We expect the first returns to take place imminently.
“Protecting the UK border is our top priority. We will do whatever it takes to restore order to secure our borders.”
Who objects to it?
A number of European leaders have warned the deal won't work, or that it will simply divert the flow of migrants and asylum seekers to their areas instead.
Alain Boonefaes, deputy mayor of the French commune of Gravelines, near Calais, told the Telegraph he was “very sceptical” of the plan, adding: “I don’t see how it’ll work. It means we share the migrants among ourselves”.
Leaders from Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta and Cyprus wrote a letter to the European Commission voicing their objection to the proposal, the Financial Times reported at the time the deal was announced.
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“We take note - with a degree of surprise - of the reported intention of France to sign a bilateral readmission arrangement,” wrote the so-called Med5 group of southern European countries, who are often a first port of call for irregular migrants.
“If confirmed, such an initiative raises serious concerns for us, both procedurally and in terms of potential implications for other member states, particularly those of first entry,”
The five nations are concerned that France could use existing EU rules allowing asylum seekers to be returned to their first country of entry, to pass on migrants taken in from the UK to their countries.
A European Commission spokesperson said: “We are in contact with the French and the UK authorities to ensure the necessary clarifications are made.”
Has a 'one in one out' scheme been tried before?
A similar arrangement was agreed upon between the EU and Turkey in 2016, which saw irregular migrants crossing the Greek-Turkish border returned to Turkey in exchange for Syrian refugees who had waited inside Turkey.
The number of asylum seekers arriving in Greece dropping from 861,000 in 2015 to 36,000 the year after the deal was signed, before climbing again to nearly 75,000 in 2019, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
However, the arrangement was criticised over human rights concerns, with Amnesty International saying there were "clear indications that that country would often be unsafe" and that "Greece was ill-equipped to offer adequate reception conditions and asylum procedures".
The number of Syrians resettled in Europe under the deal was far lower than expected.
As of January 2024, 40,254 Syrians had been resettled in the EU, according to the European Journal of Migration and Law – far short of the maximum of 72,000 outlined in the deal nearly a decade ago.
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