AfriPulse
(FILES) Migrants board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France, on July 29, 2025. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
The first returnees under a UK-France deal aimed at stopping migrants from trying to cross the English Channel will take place next week, French sources told AFP Saturday.
As part of the one-for-one agreement, inked in July, Britain will return its first migrants “at the beginning of next week”, said an airport source.
France will make its first repatriations “from next Saturday”, according to the interior ministry.
Britain’s interior ministry also confirmed to AFP that it expected the first returns to take place soon.
Under the arrangement — for now a pilot scheme set to run until June 2026 — irregular migrants arriving on UK shores can be detained and then returned to France if they are deemed ineligible for asylum.
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This would include those who have passed through a “safe country” to reach the UK, according to a Home Office fact sheet.
In exchange, London will accept an equal number of migrants from France who can apply for a visa to enter the UK via an online platform, prioritising nationalities most vulnerable to smugglers and people with ties in Britain.
If approved, they will have a three-month period in which they can enter the UK and apply for asylum.
According to France’s interior ministry, the scheme would “only concern a few individuals for the moment”.
“We may terminate the agreement if we do not find it satisfactory,” added the interior ministry source, who highlighted “the still very experimental nature of this deal”.
The agreement, which came into force in early August, seeks to curb record levels of irregular Channel crossings, which is causing increasing tension in Britain and helping to fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party.
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