UK to return some small boat migrants to France within weeks

Sir Keir Starmer said that Britain will start to return the immigrants who came to small boats to France within weeks under a new pilot plan.

Under the “Out, One Out” agreement, some arrival will be returned to France and accept a number of equivalent asylum seekers, subject to British security checks.

Speaking with the French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of a three -day state visit, the Prime Minister said the plan will show that the plan to pass the channel on small boats will “be in vain”.

It was reported that the program would return to 50 people a week, but Sir Keir did not confirm any figure.

Authorized, the “groundbreaking” plan will help people smugglers “model” model “and will accelerate if it was successful, he said.

“A global crisis, EU crisis and a crisis for our two nations,” illegal migration, he said.

Since 2018, when the figures started to collect, more than 170,000 people came to England in small boats. This year’s figures reached record levels and reached approximately 20,000 in the first six months of 2025.

Macron said the plan would have a “deterrent effect” beyond the return numbers.

The authority added that Brexit made it difficult for Britain to fight illegal migration, that the British people sell a lie … So the problem is Europe “.

During the press conference, both leaders explained that their countries would do:

• Coordinating nuclear deterrers– In other words, they will activate their weapons in case of an attack
• Strengthen cooperation on super computer and artificial intelligence
• “Accelerate and Accelerate” cooperation in anti -Gemme missiles.

Some details of small boats, including how to send back France to France, remain uncertain, but it seems that the pilot will start with adults.

Those who live in France but want to come to England may be interested in applying for asylum through an online platform.

Priority will be given priority to human smugglers who are most prone to those who are connected to the UK.

In a statement The government, which was published after the press conference, said that the agreement would be signed with full transparency and understanding subject to completing the legal examination in advance. [European] Commission and EU Member States “.

Other EU countries, such as Spain and Italy, may have concerns that return immigrants can be sent to them. In accordance with the EU rules, individuals who have been sent back to France will have to request asylum in the first European country they have come to, often limiting the Mediterranean Sea.

Sir Keir, “There is no silver bullets here, but a combined effort, new tactics and a new level of intention we can finally turn the tables,” he said.

In addition to the return pilot, he promised a “pressure” about illegal work that will enable the work promised by human traders to migrants “will no longer exist”.

The government said that they have plans to withstand the hot spots that work illegally, such as delivery riders.

Macron said the two countries will “intensify the common action” in origin and transit countries.

Sir Keir, who announced the pilot, said, “I know some people will still ask, why should we get anyone – so let me take it directly.

“We accept real asylum seekers, because it is right to offer a paradise to those who need the most.

“But there is something else, there is something more practical, so we cannot solve a challenge of stopping boats by moving alone and saying that we will not play ball to our allies.”

Conservative Shadow Interior Minister Chris Philp said the agreement would “return only one of every 17 illegal immigrants”.

“To allow 94% of illegal immigrants to remain will make no difference and will have a deterrent effect.”

Reform British leader Nigel Farage said that transitions were “national security emergency”.

“Obviously the French owe us our money back,” he added with a reference. Payments made by the UK Supporting French policing efforts.

He said that he did not believe that the pilot will work: “If we even try to deport people throughout the channel, we will directly enter the European Convention on Human Rights.”

An former migration and border inspector John Vine said that the BBC has determined the principle that France should take back illegal immigrants to the Newsnight program that it was “first” and “a success”.

However, he said that the plan will not reduce the transitions unless the returned numbers are “important”.

Imran Hussain from the Refugee Council said that the government’s “right” to look at the ways to target the smugglers’ business model, and that the proposal would provide “a mechanism in which families have a safe and legal way to come to England”.

However, the following issues of philanthropy said: “We don’t need anything else cheating expensive, ineffective, dangerous.

“The only way to prevent people from making dangerous journeys is to give them real safe ways to seek shelters.”

Labor and previous conservative governments fought to eliminate the numbers that came to the UK on small boats.

The conservatives suggested to send arrival to Rwanda, but the plan was postponed with legal difficulties. The general election was called before the implementation.

One of Sir Keir’s first actions as prime minister was to scrape the plan and call it cheating.

The authority said the government would focus on fighting the smuggling gangs that organize transitions.