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British and French governments are in talks on a return of the return of migrants that will include a person expelled from the United Kingdom in exchange for France by sending another individual in another way, among the hopes that the agreement may be expanded to a broader European initiative.
British and French officials are in early discussions about a pilot scheme under which a small number of irregular migrants encountered in the English channel in the UK would be sent back to France.
British officials said the United Kingdom would seek to accept France a limited number of migrants who are eligible to be in Britain, especially those with a legal case for family reunification.
France is ready to test such a scheme, despite its long preference for a broad agreement in the EU because it believes a return agreement would prevent traffickers and migrants.
Before coming to power, Sir Keir Starmer said he would see a return agreement with the EU, but no such agreement has yet materialized.
Starmer tends to convince voters that he has a plan to handle irregular migration in Britain and “destroys gangs” involved in transporting asylum seekers across the small ship, as he seeks to remove the electoral threat posed by the UK Populist Party.
“We are in early discussions about a scheme that will see a small number of migrants returned to France in exchange for us who accept others, in accordance with what we have discussed. For the advantage of family reunification,” a British official said.
A spokesman for the United Kingdom Internal Office said: “We are intensifying our cooperation with France and other European countries facing the same challenges by exploring fresh and innovative measures to dismantle the business models of smuggling criminal gangs.”
France’s Interior Ministry confirmed that the country was in negotiations with the United Kingdom in connection with an agreement to again receive some irregular migrants that had crossed the channel.
“France’s interest is to discourage migrants (and smuggle networks) to try to reach the UK from France,” she said.
The ministry added that the ambition was for the project to extend to a wider EU scheme.
“It’s a pilot scheme that provides for a future European agreement, which France strongly supports,” she said.
“It is based on a one-to-one principle: for each legal acceptance under the reunion of the family, there would be a relevant reader of unmarked migrants that managed to cross (channel).”
Small boat crossings across the channel are at record levels, with almost 8,200 people who have made the UK travel since the beginning of the year, with 30 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
The number of small boat arrivals increased 25 percent to 2024, to more than 37,000.
EU officials warned that the extension of the Pilot’s Pilot Pilot scheme throughout the Bloc will be likely to face considerable obstacles, as many countries do not want to receive migrants again that Britain has refused, especially as anti-imigrating feelings grow among some voters.
An EU diplomat said the Franco-British discussions were “preliminary” and was “too early to speculate on the possible involvement of other member states (EU)”.
Before Brexit, the United Kingdom was a party to the EU regulation in Dublin, under which people had to be processed for asylum in the place they first entered the block.
However, many EU nations for the first entry for migrants, such as Italy, do not apply the rules of Dublin.
The United Kingdom and France already have a wide partnership of the border control called the Touquet Agreement, under which the United Kingdom has agreed to pay about € 540 million for France between 2023 and 2026 in exchange for more intense monitoring of the channel police.
It has allowed France to hire more officers, patrol more often and intensify supervision, including with drones.
Advocate groups criticize the most difficult approach as endangering people seeking to cross the channel.
France and the United Kingdom have also begun to work tightly together with British security staff taking Observer roles at the French command centers around Calais.
Despite the nearest cooperation, France has long rejected certain British demands, such as patrolling together or processing asylum applications in France on behalf of the United Kingdom.
