The Home Office is continuing to return asylum seekers to France despite the “one in, one out” scheme ending on 1 October, The Guardian reports. According to the newspaper, a charter flight carrying a group of people being returned took place on 28 October, with another scheduled for 17 November.
In its article published on 1 November, the newspaper cites sources within the Home Office, the UK government department responsible for immigration. They reportedly said that returns of the remaining people covered by the scheme were continuing after the agreement ended. According to the newspaper, dozens of people remain in immigration detention — held in closed facilities — while arrangements are made to return them to France.
The scheme has ended, but returns continue
Announced in July 2025, the “one in, one out” arrangement was intended to work in both directions. The UK would return some people who had arrived by small boat to France, while legally admitting a similar number of asylum seekers from northern France.
The Guardian’s findings concern returns continuing after the scheme ended, rather than an announcement that it had been extended. The explanation attributed to Home Office sources points to the continuation of cases involving people already covered by the arrangement. The report does not, however, establish the legal position on continuing those returns after 1 October.
The flight reported on 28 October has already taken place. The 17 November date is a scheduled departure, not confirmation that another return has been carried out.
Some of those returned have come back to the UK
The newspaper also found that at least seven people previously returned to France had come back to the UK since 1 October. Its journalists spoke to two of them, both of whom said their asylum claims were now being considered in the UK.
Those accounts concern the circumstances of those individuals, rather than rules applying to everyone covered by the scheme. They nevertheless highlight a second strand of the newspaper’s reporting: alongside continuing returns to France, some people previously sent there have made their way back to the UK.
