UK Migrant Return Scheme Costs £56,000 Per Person

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the government's one-in, one-out migrant return scheme costs approximately £56,000 per person returned to France. Since the pilot began in August 2025, the Home Office has removed about 1,400 people, though some have since returned to the UK. The arrangement involves returning a small-boat arrival to France in exchange for accepting an asylum seeker through a legal route.

Mahmood defended the expenditure as comparable to the cost of providing hotel support for one year. She noted that detention space constraints have created operational difficulties in scaling the program. Despite these challenges, she argued the deal has returned more migrants than previous Dublin arrangements.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has expressed a desire to end the bilateral scheme by October 1, 2026. Nuñez advocates for a broader EU-UK returns agreement, arguing that France should not carry the burden alone. Mahmood rejected this proposal, stating that an EU-wide system would not resolve the Channel crisis.