The UK will begin deportation flights to France under a "one in, one out" pilot scheme next week, new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Saturday, after removal notices were served on recent Channel arrivals.
Mahmood said she expected returns to begin "imminently" and that the first flight was pencilled in for as early as Monday. The scheme, agreed in July under a UK‑France treaty, allows people who cross the Channel in small boats to be detained and removed to France in exchange for migrants who apply and are approved to travel legally to the UK.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "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." The statement added that removal notices have already been served on asylum seekers who arrived last month, warning they could be sent back to France within five days.
The government has made curbing small‑boat crossings a priority after record numbers reached the UK this year. Crossings have topped 30,000 in 2025, the fastest point on record and the earliest in a calendar year the milestone has been passed since official data began in 2018.
The first group of Channel arrivals detained under the scheme were taken into custody on Aug. 6. Ministers said when the agreement was announced that returns would take effect within weeks; earlier this month the government acknowledged that no Channel migrants had yet been returned to France under the deal.
Mahmood also said the UK was considering tougher actions against countries that refuse to cooperate with deportations. Speaking on Monday, she said governments that "do not play ball" could face curtailed access to UK visas, a measure she said could be coordinated among Five Eyes partners. "For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future, just to say we do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules," she said.
Legal and operational questions remain about how the pilot will work in practice. The bilateral treaty sets out an exchange mechanism in which the UK returns recent irregular Channel crossings to France while accepting migrants who have a legal route to the UK. Home Office officials have said the pilot is intended to deter dangerous crossings and to restore order at the border, but ministers will need to ensure removals comply with domestic and international obligations, including asylum and human‑rights law.
Humanitarian organisations and some opposition politicians have previously challenged the legality and practicality of removing asylum seekers to France, arguing that returns risk breaching the UK's obligations to assess claims and ensure non‑refoulement. The government maintains that the treaty establishes a framework for lawful removals and that those returned will be processed under French and international law.
As the pilot is set to start, UK officials will oversee the logistics of detention, removal notices and charter arrangements, while monitoring whether France accepts returns at the scale envisaged. If implemented, the flights will mark the first operational use of the July agreement, after months of planning and public debate over how to manage the flow of migrants who cross the Channel in small boats.
The Home Office framed the move as part of a wider strategy to "restore order to secure our borders." Officials said they would continue to use a range of measures — including policing, maritime interception, and diplomatic pressure — to manage migration while legal processes for asylum claims proceed.