Home Office only has 12 staff working on its ‘one-in, one-out’ returns deal

The Home Office has just 12 staff working on the ‘one in, one out’ extradition deal, according to Britain’s border security commander.

The agreement, made in July, stipulates that France will accept asylum seekers who have crossed its shores to England but cannot prove they have family ties there.

The plan, adopted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, stipulates that for every person the UK takes in, it will grant asylum to another person from France.

But Martin Hewitt admitted to the House of Commons home affairs select committee that the team dedicated to working on the deal was small. Times reports.

He stressed to MPs that ‘lots of other people’ were also involved.

The official highlighted staff at the Manston center in Kent who process immigrants selected for removal.

It also recorded those at the immigration detention center at Heathrow, where immigrants are held before being deported to France.

Overall, more than 5,000 officers across the Home Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are working on the small boat crisis.

Border Security Command, the immigration enforcement agency where Hewitt started after his appointment a year ago, funds about 1,000 of them.

About 26 immigrants have been deported so far under the one-in, one-out agreement.

So far this year, 36,365 migrants have crossed the Channel; This figure is one-third more than this time last year.

The record was broken in 2022, when 37,099 immigrants arrived by this time of the year.

Mr Hewitt said: ‘I, more than anyone else, find the figures frustrating and truly challenging, and this issue could not be more high-profile.

‘But I believe that the plan, the cross-spectrum plan that we have, is a plan that will succeed, but we need to continue to push and implement that plan.’

He also expressed disappointment, telling the committee that the plan was beset by other difficulties.

Bureaucratic and legal difficulties prevent French police officers from intervening in small boats up to 300 meters from shore, the official said.

He explained that the force is still being given specialist training to ensure they are not responsible for any deaths that may occur in the process.

It also comes amid instability in the French government, which collapsed for the third time in a year earlier this month.

Although Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was reappointed after his resignation with two votes of confidence, interior minister Bruno Retailleau, who accepted the changes to the border, was replaced.

The French government had promised that officers would intercept the boats by the end of the summer.

But currently, boats cannot legally intervene once they are in the water unless passengers request to be rescued.

Delays in enforcement also came from the French police union, which demanded better equipment and protection.

Mr Hewitt said it would be easier to prevent crossings if officers could intervene.

However, when asked about this by a House of Commons committee, he said ‘we are waiting for him to be appointed’.

The agreement, made in July, stipulates that France will accept asylum seekers who have crossed its shores to England but cannot prove they have family ties there. Picture: On October 10, 2025, migrants set sail to board a small boat from France

The commander continued: ‘President Macron touched on this when he spoke to the prime minister at the summit in July, so it is frustrating that it has taken this long… political instability is clearly the background to this.’

He explained that violence and deaths increased during Canal crossings, as poor immigrants from the Horn of Africa attacked small boats without paying the passage fee.

The most common nationality of migrants crossing the Channel in the first half of this year was Eritrea, with 3,543 people from this country making the journey.

Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia were in the top eight.

NCA operations director general Rob Jones told a House of Commons committee: ‘This year the Horn of Africa group has increased those numbers through their violent behavior and subsequent compromise with smugglers, and that’s what we’re talking about in terms of injuries and deaths.’

As of last week, around 18 migrants had arrived in the UK from France as part of the ‘inward’ route agreed with Macron’s government in the summer.

Meanwhile, 10,040 small boat migrants have arrived in Dover by small boat since the program was launched on August 6.

Last week alone included 1,075 on Wednesday.

Sir Keir canceled the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of his first acts in office.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour is defrauding the British people. This is just a big scam.

‘More than 10,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel since the deal came into force and Labor has only removed 26. This of course won’t deter anyone.

‘We need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which will allow us to deport people in a matter of days; This will be a real deterrent.’

However, Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood trumpeted the figures received from the UK as part of the new agreement with France.

‘The contrast could not be clearer. “The last government’s Rwanda plan took years, cost hundreds of millions of pounds and failed to forcibly displace a single person,” he said.

‘Thanks to the historic agreement we made with France, we returned 26 of them within a few weeks.

‘We must put an end to these dangerous crossings that endanger lives and put money into the pockets of criminal gangs.

Under the plan agreed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron (pictured at the summit in July), for every person it takes in, the UK grants asylum to another from France.

‘As flights to France resume and ramp up, we are sending a clear message: If you arrive here illegally you will be detained and deported, so think twice before embarking on this journey.’

The Ministry of Internal Affairs published footage of migrants being sent back to France; Under this program, immigrants used charter flights for the first time.

It comes as people smugglers have begun using deadly ‘megaboats’ to send migrants on their perilous journeys across the Channel.

At the end of last month one of the overloaded inflatable boats (approximately 40ft) was photographed in the Channel for the first time.

Labor said the ‘one in, one out’ plan would undermine people smugglers’ tactics and ‘break up gangs’ by convincing potential migrants that crossing the Channel could be fruitless.

But the program has been rolled out slowly after facing legal challenges, and even when fully operational it is expected to remove only around 50 migrants a week.

The all-time record for daily arrivals is 1,305 on September 3, 2022.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs was contacted for comment.