UK-France deal targeting migrants crossing English Channel is scrapped

Britain's Home Office said Wednesday that its agreement with France to return migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats has ended, with the pilot "no longer processing new cases," according to a Home Office statement cited by France 24, Euronews and The Associated Press. The scheme, known as Operation Hillmore according to Euronews, let Britain detain and send back to France migrants who arrived illegally by small boat and were found to have no right to remain, in exchange for accepting an equal number of asylum seekers who had applied through a legal route in France, with priority given to vulnerable nationalities and people with UK family ties. Euronews reported that only about 4% of the 27,920 migrants who arrived in the UK by small boat during the scheme's run were actually returned under it.

Euronews reported that between 4 August 2025 and 30 June 2026, 1,087 people were returned to France while 1,117 were transferred to the UK under the arrangement, figures that France 24 also cited from Home Office data. The pilot had an initial target of 2,600 exchanges and was meant to run three years, though a clause allowed either side to end it early, France 24 reported. It launched in August 2025 and was due to expire Thursday, having been extended in June until 1 October, according to Euronews.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs on 15 September that returning each migrant cost UK taxpayers an average of about £56,000 (€65,500), Euronews reported. Mahmood also told parliament the deal had "not been without its challenges" and that "the numbers are still relatively small," according to France 24, adding that "what has been more operationally difficult is to scale up very large numbers of removals every week into the French system." Reaction

Burnham said Brexit made it harder to curb small boat crossings since Britain lost some of its previous cooperation with the EU, Euronews reported. He declined to give a date for ending crossings, telling the BBC that he and Mahmood would continue acting against "every element of this criminal, illegal activity," and that his government was "changing the whole approach" by pairing stronger enforcement with legal routes for asylum seekers. Le Monde reported that Burnham had pressed French President Emmanuel Macron in September to keep the deal alive, but that "Paris was in a hurry to end the cooperation on controlling migrant flows," according to France 24's citation of the French paper. The Home Office said in its statement, "We continue to work with France to relentlessly tackle small boat crossings, and we've made real progress," and said deportation flights would continue in coming weeks for migrants already detained under the scheme. Background

Euronews reported that in June, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told lawmakers the EU needed a more collective approach to illegal migration, arguing France alone should not police an external EU border given weak border controls in countries where migrants first enter the EU and move onward within Schengen. The outlet also reported that migrants pay smugglers thousands of euros for places on overcrowded inflatable boats and that research has shown a sharp rise this year in boats launching from Belgium as smuggling networks seek new departure points. Euronews reported that roughly 197,000 migrants have made the Channel crossing in small boats since it became a major route to the UK.

Crossings have fallen sharply this year, with 19,135 people crossing from France as of Sunday in 2026, down 42% year-on-year, France 24 reported, citing increased police patrols and enhanced surveillance in northern France. On Monday, a boat carrying more than 100 people saw a 10-year-old child and two women die, apparently after being trampled, according to the AP and France 24. An AFP tally cited by France 24 put this year's Channel crossing deaths at 22 so far. Separately, France 24 reported that a court in France handed six men prison terms of six to 10 years on Wednesday for their role in the deaths of at least 31 migrants in the Channel in November 2021, the deadliest such accident, which the court blamed on "individuals driven by greed, with utter disregard for human life."