Overview

• The pilot, pending EU sign-off, commits to returning about 50 irregular Channel arrivals each week to France in exchange for one verified asylum seeker.
• Critics warn the scheme will return only 6 percent of small-boat arrivals and label it ineffective amid more than 21,000 crossings in the first half of 2025.
• UK officials say cooperation with France has prevented some 12,000 crossings since Labour took office, including dinghy punctures in French waters.
• Talks are advancing on similar bilateral return agreements with Germany and an imminent pact with Iraq to facilitate deportations of specific nationalities.
• The Home Office’s new Border Security Command and the National Crime Agency have stepped up cross-border operations to dismantle people-smuggling networks.