One in, one out flights to France are still running

Key Takeaways

The flights	The Guardian reported that Home Office sources said a charter took asylum seekers to France on Wednesday, Oct. 28, with another flight scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 17. No passenger count for either plane has been published.
Still detained	Those sources said dozens of people who arrived by small boat before new cases stopped are still held for removal. Emma Ginn, director of Medical Justice, told the Guardian that detention under the scheme is continuing.
Boat arrivals	Home Office figures show no detected Channel arrivals from Thursday, Oct. 8, through Wednesday, Oct. 28. Arrivals then resumed: 263 people on Thursday, Oct. 29, 671 on Friday, Oct. 30, and 259 on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Return cost	Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that the average was about £56,000 a person and that about 1,400 people had been returned since August 2025. She said she would write to confirm the unit cost.

The Home Office is still flying asylum seekers to France under the one in, one out deal weeks after new cases stopped on Thursday, Oct. 1, the Guardian reported on Sunday, Nov. 1. Sources told the paper that a charter left on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and that another flight is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 17.

What the one in, one out flights still cover

A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that the pilot "is no longer processing new cases," and that "flights will continue over the coming weeks to swiftly remove small boat migrants from the UK." Euronews carried the same statement that day and said the deal had been due to expire on Thursday, Oct. 1.

Home Office guidance for the UK/European Applicant Transfer Scheme, updated on Thursday, Oct. 1, says the scheme "is closed to new applications." People who already applied "will be informed of the decision in due course."

Sources told the paper that dozens of people who arrived by small boat before the cutoff are still detained, that the Wednesday, Oct. 28, charter carried part of that group, and that another flight is set for Tuesday, Nov. 17. The paper gave no headcount. The French Interior Ministry told the BBC, "We are discussing with the British the terms of exit from the agreement."

A Home Office statistical release says the UK-France Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys came into force on Aug. 6, 2025, with one legal transfer from France for each person returned. The Guardian said President Emmanuel Macron and then-prime minister Keir Starmer announced it in July 2025. The BBC reported on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that a pilot due to end in June 2026 had been extended into October.

Citing freedom-of-information data, the Guardian said seven of 23 deportation flights to France were cancelled from July through September 2026, more than double the cancelled France flights in the first half of the year. The published agreement statistics include no such flight list, and they end on June 30, 2026.

People still held for removal

Emma Ginn, director of Medical Justice, told the Guardian that detention for removal to France has not stopped. "Even though the scheme has been abandoned, vulnerable people still held under its powers continue to suffer immensely," she said.

The paper reported that at least seven people already sent to France had come back since Thursday, Oct. 1. It interviewed two of them, an unnamed Syrian man and an unnamed Iranian man. The paper said both returned within days of the cutoff.

"At first the Home Office put me back in detention," the Syrian man told the Guardian. "They said they were looking for a safe third country to deport me to. But there wasn't one, so they released me and my asylum claim is now being looked at in the UK." The Guardian said the Iranian man had been planning for months to get back to Britain. He told the paper, "I was too afraid to go outside in France."

The June tables cannot confirm the figure of seven, because they stop before October. They also count a person once. Someone returned to France who later re-enters illegally "is counted only once," the release says, even if removed again. The Guardian said some people were sent back, came to Britain again, and were removed a second time.

Channel arrivals and the price of each return

Detected arrivals from Jan. 1 through Thursday, Oct. 30, were 40.8 percent below the same dates in 2025. The Home Office weekly time series records 21,869 people in 2026 and 36,954 a year earlier, which matches the Guardian's approximate 40 percent drop.

That series shows no arrivals from Thursday, Oct. 8, through Wednesday, Oct. 28, after 119 people on two boats on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The provisional daily arrivals table, updated on Sunday, Nov. 1, then lists 263 people on three boats on Thursday, Oct. 29, 671 on nine boats on Friday, Oct. 30, and 259 on four boats on Saturday, Oct. 31. The Guardian cited the first two days and not the third.

Returns were a thin share of arrivals in the published window. From Aug. 6, 2025, through June 30, 2026, the Home Office recorded 1,087 people returned to France and 1,117 transferred to Britain. Over those dates the small-boat series shows 27,920 detected arrivals, so the returns were about 3.9 percent.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Sept. 15, that the pilot had shown such a deal could work, and that the numbers were "still relatively small." Scaling "very large numbers of removals every week into the French system" had been harder, she said. The BBC reported her figure as "about £56,000" per person, the total removed since August 2025 as around 1,400, and a promise to write confirming the unit cost.

The Guardian, citing that evidence, said removals had cost at least £78 million. The BBC quotes the average and the headcount, not a summed total, and those two numbers come to about £78.4 million. It also said £56,000 topped the department's £48,800 average for an enforced return. On Wednesday, Sept. 30, the BBC put removals at around 1,500. No official table after June 30 has been published.

No Home Office page gives a headcount for the Wednesday, Oct. 28, charter or confirms the Tuesday, Nov. 17, flight.