Borders Minister Alex Norris told peers the Government wants to strike similar deals with other countries as he said the ‘one-in-one-out’ agreement with France is working
18:15, 16 Dec 2025Updated 18:15, 16 Dec 2025
Nearly 200 small boat arrivals have been returned to France(Image: PA Wire)
Nearly 200 small boat arrivals have been returned to France under the ‘one-in-one-out’ deal, a minister said.
Alex Norris told peers the Government hopes to strike similar agreements with other European nations, who are desperate to tackle the “worst human beings possible” behind trafficking gangs. The Borders Minister revealed that 193 people have been returned to France since October, while 195 have been admitted to the UK in exchange.
Mr Norris also told the Lords International Agreements Committee the Government is pushing for access to the Eurodac database – which contains biometric data of new arrivals. Updating the committee on the agreement, reached between the two nations in the summer, he said: “Our view as a government is that the thing works.”
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Alex Norris said the scheme is working well
He went on: “It operates as intended. Now, is it the summit of our aspirations? No, it’s not, but it works. And that, you know, as I say, that that is no mean feat.”
The Home Office minister said France has been acting in “good faith”, saying it is wrong to think it is disinterested in stopping small boats. And Mr Norris said the rest of Europe wants to tackle the movement of migrants crossing the continent.
He said of the French government: “The fact that they’ve been willing to enter into these arrangements I think demonstrates significant good faith on their part. But to look at it in its practicalities, it’s not in their interests to have the camps that are in northern France, those are not good places for any human beings, but not good aspects of any communities.
“Similarly, for all partners across Europe, to have that flow of irregular migration through Europe is not good because along each link to the chain, the people who sit behind this are organised criminals, some of the worst human beings frankly possible.
“And all the behaviours that come along with it – because it doesn’t stop at human trafficking, it inevitably spills over into violence, into drugs, into prostitution and all those things which aren’t in the interests of any of our European partners to have.”
Mr Norris said European nations believe the UK is “too soft”, saying the Government is addressing pull factors. And he said ministers want to strike similar deals with other countries.
He said the scheme was good value for taxpayers, and added: “It is our position as a government that we would like to grow the number of parties that we have such agreements with.”
Mr Norris said the UK is pushing for access to the Eurodac security database – which includes fingerprints and facial images of asylum seekers and irregular migrants. Without this, he said, officials do not know if a person has applied to live in another country.
The minister said: “We don’t have access to Eurodac – to whether or not individuals have tried in a different country – and that is out of the width of this scheme now. It would not surprise colleagues to know to any degree that we would want the maximum information, those are conversations we have with our European counterparts.”