Britain and France agreed on Thursday to launch a pilot program that will return some migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats back to France, as the U.K. government faces mounting criticism over its handling of border control.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced the deal Thursday in London. While the initial program is limited to a small number of people, U.K. officials suggest it is a major breakthrough because it sets a precedent that migrants who reach Britain illegally can be returned to France.
"There is no silver bullet here, but with a united effort, new tactics and a new level of intent, we can finally turn the tables,'' Starmer told reporters at a news conference. "For the very first time, migrants arriving via small boat will be detained and returned to France in short order."
Under the agreement, Britain will send some of those who cross the Channel in small boats back to France while accepting an equal number of migrants who are judged to have legitimate claims to asylum in the U.K.
Starmer had pushed for the arrangement, known as the "one in, one out" deal, in hopes of discouraging people from making the dangerous crossing.
Small boat crossings have become a potent political issue in Britain, fueled by pictures of people smugglers piling migrants into overcrowded, leaky inflatable boats on the French coast. So far this year, more than 21,000 people have arrived in the U.K. in small boats, up 56% from the same period last year. Dozens have died.
The measure announced Thursday is part of broader efforts to build closer cooperation with France, as well as countries further up the migrants' routes from Africa and the Middle East.
British officials have been pushing for French police to intervene more forcefully to stop boats once they have left the shore, and welcomed the sight of officers slashing rubber dinghies with knives in recent days.
Macron said earlier this week that he and Starmer would aim for "tangible results” on an issue that's "a burden for our two countries."
As far back as 2001, the two countries were discussing ways to stop the flow of migrants, though at that time they were focused on people stowing away on trains and trucks entering Britain through the tunnel under the Channel.
Over the following years, French authorities cleared out camps near Calais where thousands of migrants gathered before trying to reach Britain. Beefed up security sharply reduced the number of vehicle stowaways, but from about 2018, people-smugglers began offering migrants a new route by sea.
"You see that pattern again and again, where smuggling gangs and migrants try to find new ways to cross from France to the U.K.," said Mihnea Cuibus, a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory.
"The authorities crack down on that, and then gradually you see migrants and gangs try to adapt to that. And it becomes a bit of a game of cat and mouse."
Cooperation on stopping the boats stalled after Britain’s acrimonious split from the European Union in 2020, but in the past few years, the countries have struck several agreements that saw the U.K. pay France to increase police and drone patrols of the coast.
Britain's previous Conservative government came up with a contentious plan in 2022 to deport asylum-seekers arriving by boat to Rwanda. Critics called it unworkable and unethical, and it was scrapped by Starmer soon after he took office in July 2024.
Cuibus said irregular cross-channel migration would likely always be a challenge, but that the measures being discussed by Britain and France could make an impact, "if they're implemented in the right way."
"But that's a big if," he said.
