France wants Britain to take migrants from across EUROPE in plan to replace ‘one in, one out’ deal

BRITAIN could take migrants from across Europe under French proposals to end the one-in, one-out deal. Laurent Nuñez, France‘s interior minister, told Shabana Mahmood that he wanted to see the return scheme end. It comes after a small boat made a landmark 70 mile crossing Credit: Reuters Shabana Mahmood is negotiating the continuation of the one-in, one-out deal Credit: Alamy He explained that France was looking to replace the deal with a wider one-in, one-out proposal covering the whole of the EU. Under France‘s proposal, Britain would send Channel migrants back to Europe in return for taking legitimate asylum seekers from across the continent. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Thank you! It comes after a week of migrant chaos – with the longest ever crossing to the UK made earlier this week. A boat packed with 140 migrants made the first-of-its-kind crossing from Normandy before being intercepted by lifeboats, with the occupants being taken to Portsmouth. French interior minister Laurent Nuñez wants to replace the deal with a wider scheme Credit: Shutterstock Editorial It made the nearly 70-mile – and potentially dangerous – crossing, which is double the length of the traditional small boat route from Calais to Dover. And the departure point was more than 200 miles from the usual beach which dinghies leave from at Gravelines in France. Fears are now growing that the landmark crossing could mean the opening up of new routes across the South Coast as people smuggling gangs try to dodge crackdowns. Scenes of disorder were seen in Portsmouth and Dover over the weekend where hundreds of black-clad and masked protesters took to the streets over the migrant crisis. Most read in The Sun Masked protesters blocked roads around the Port of Dover on Saturday, causing major disruption around Britain’s busiest ferry port. The following day, demonstrators gathered in Portsmouth after 120 migrants rescued in the Channel were brought ashore by two RNLI lifeboats. And, last month a record 230 illegal immigrants flooded onto a single Britain-bound boat. The lifejacket-clad passengers were crammed on the 49ft craft, which carried more than an average EasyJet flight from France. A returns deal encompassing the whole of Europe – similar to France’s proposal – was in place before Britain left the EU, known as the Dublin agreement. Attempts by UK leaders to keep it going after Brexit were rejected by EU officials. Andy Burnham asked French President Emmanuel Macron to continue the deal Credit: Shutterstock Editorial So far, the number of Channel crossings this year has fallen by 40 per cent Credit: Reuters Negotiations on whether to continue the one-in, one-out deal with France are currently under way with the deal set to expire on October 1. Last week Andy Burnham appealed to the French President Emmanuel Macron to continue the scheme during the pair’s first bilateral meeting. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also wants to keep the one-in, one-out deal with France in place. She reportedly hopes to increase the number of migrants being sent back to France through the scheme in an attempt to deter further Channel crossings. So far, Britain has returned 1,400 Channel migrants to France which in turn has sent a similar number of asylum seekers to the UK. Speaking to a French parliamentary inquiry, Mr Nuñez said: “For our part, we want to move away from this bilateral relationship with the UK. “We consider that France should not have to carry it alone, and that it would be better to integrate it into an agreement between the EU and UK. “So I have already clearly told my counterpart that this pilot agreement, which we signed in August 2025, was not intended to be renewed beyond October 1, 2026.” He said there was no current action plan for a EU replacement scheme but added that there was interest. It is unlikely that the British government would agree to any deal that would see it accept more migrants than it sent back. Southern European states, that are an entry point for migrants coming to the continent, fear a deal would mean they have to take more than their share of asylum seekers returned by the UK. The European commission has said it would not agree to the French proposed deal on migration until a compromise is found. It is thought that President Macron would be more willing to renew the one-in, one-out deal than Mr Nuñez. One senior MP told the Telegraph: “It would be wrong to say there’s one uniform view on the French side that dictates where we could end up.” Meanwhile, French immigration officials say it is not clear that the scheme will come to an end in October. The Sun has contacted the Home Office for comment.