Britain is set to begin implementing a new returns agreement with France within days, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed, following the ratification of a treaty designed to cut the number of small boat crossings across the Channel.<\/p>\n
Under the \u201cone in, one out\u201d pilot scheme, France has agreed to take back some undocumented migrants who arrive in Britain via small boats, in exchange for the UK accepting an equal number of legitimate asylum seekers with family connections in Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers will start lower and then build up,\u201d Cooper told Sky News, explaining that the scheme is targeted at new arrivals rather than individuals already in the UK. She declined to specify exact figures, though government sources have previously indicated the scheme could involve around 50 returns per week \u2014 or 2,600 per year \u2014 a fraction of the over 35,000 who arrived last year.<\/p>\n
According to the treaty, Britain must make a request to return an individual within 14 days of their arrival, and France is not obligated to accept unaccompanied minors or individuals who pose pre-existing security risks. A target timeframe of no more than three months has been set for any transfer.<\/p>\n
The move is part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s wider efforts to reduce illegal migration, with over 25,000 people having arrived in Britain on small boats so far in 2025.<\/p>\n
Starmer, who has seen a dip in popularity since his landslide election victory last year, is under mounting pressure from Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK party, which is currently leading in national opinion polls and campaigning hard on the issue of migration.<\/p>\n
The government has faced additional pressure from protests near hotels housing asylum seekers in recent weeks, drawing both anti-immigration demonstrators and pro-migrant activists.<\/p>\n
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, posting on X, said the deal has a \u201cclear objective\u201d to dismantle people-smuggling networks.<\/p>\n
Cooper echoed that sentiment, defending the deal against critics who argue it is too limited in scale to act as an effective deterrent. \u201cThis is just one part of a wider plan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Other measures in the government\u2019s crackdown include sanctions, restrictions on social media adverts used by smugglers, and coordination with delivery firms to disrupt trafficking operations.<\/p>\n
The Home Office said it expects detentions of new arrivals eligible for return to begin within days.<\/p>\n
Boluwatife Enome<\/p>\n
Follow us on:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain is set to begin implementing a new returns agreement with France within days, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-320693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114978033747535543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}