UK-France Migrant Returns Scheme Costs £56,000 for Every Person Sent Back

The UK’s “one in, one out” migrant returns agreement with France is costing approximately £56,000 for every person returned, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

Around 1,400 people have been returned to France since the scheme began in August 2025.

Mahmood acknowledged that some of those returned have subsequently made their way back to Britain in lorries or small boats.

She also described the scheme as “operationally difficult” to expand, citing constraints including Britain’s detention capacity.

Under the reciprocal arrangement, Britain returns eligible people who arrive across the Channel in small boats while accepting asylum seekers from France through an authorised route.

Mahmood defended the £56,000 cost by comparing it with the expense of accommodating an asylum seeker in a hotel for a year.

The scheme’s future is also uncertain.

France’s Interior Minister has said Paris does not want the bilateral pilot renewed beyond October 1 and would prefer it to be replaced by a wider agreement between the UK and European Union.

Mahmood separately updated MPs on the government’s offer of payments of up to £40,000 to failed-asylum-seeking families who agree to leave Britain voluntarily.

She said take-up has so far been relatively small.

The £56,000 figure provides a clearer measure of the cost of one of the government’s main policies intended to address Channel crossings.

Around 1,400 people have been returned.

Some have subsequently returned to Britain.

And France says it does not want the existing arrangement extended beyond October 1.

Source

• The Guardian – UK paying £56,000 for each person returned to France