France and Britain are discussing ending their "one in, one out" English Channel illegal migration deal, a French interior ministry source said on Wednesday, with Paris unwilling to extend a pilot scheme due to expire on Thursday.
The agreement, announced last year in a bid to curb small-boat crossings of the English Channel, allowed Britain to return illegal migrants arriving by small boat to France in exchange for taking an equal number of “asylum seekers” with family links in Britain.
"We are discussing the terms of withdrawal from the agreement with the British," the source said.
France's interior ministry declined to comment on why Paris wanted to wind down the scheme. Britain's interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Appearing before parliament in June, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Britain remained an attractive destination for undocumented migrants because they could easily find work there.
He also said France wanted to focus on "a more European approach to combatting illegal migration."
"France cannot be expected to bear sole responsibility for controlling an EU external border whose irregular crossings are primarily explained by shortcomings in controls by countries of first entry and by secondary movements within the Schengen area," he told French lawmakers.
Nunez said 951 people had been returned to France under the "one in, one out" scheme, while 935 people had been granted legal entry to Britain.
According to British interior ministry data, the number of illegal migrants who successfully crossed the channel in 2026 was down more than 40 per cent by late September from the same period a year earlier.
(Reporting by Makini Brice and Gabriel Stargardter in Paris; additional reporting by William James in London. Writing by Mateusz Rabiega in Gdansk. Editing by Alison Williams, Richard Lough and Mark Potter)
