Each Small Boat Return Cost £56,000, and France Refused Up to Half of Some Groups, Watchdog Finds

News | By Matt, Editor

France turned away up to half of the small boat migrants Britain tried to send back in some batches under the “one in, one out” deal, the borders watchdog has found. Each return cost about £56,000, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs in September.

John Tuckett, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, says French officials gave UK caseworkers “binary yes/no responses” without enough explanation to spot a pattern. Staff spent time and money preparing groups “where the refusal rate has been as high as 50%”.

The deal, signed by Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron in July 2025, swapped each small boat arrival sent back to France for one person let in from France.

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The business case planned for up to 250 returns a week. Between August 2025 and 11 March 2026, the report says, 396 people were sent back to France and 420 were let in. By early May it still had not hit a target of 100 returns a week, the inspector found.

By the end of June, official figures reported by the Daily Mail show 1,087 returned and 1,117 accepted. Over roughly the same period, Home Office data show 27,920 people crossed the Channel in small boats. Fewer than four in every 100 were sent back.

The report also says the Home Office’s own business case expected the pilot’s value to be “negative under almost every scenario”, and that the department gave inspectors no evidence of recent value-for-money checks.

In May, French officials said they would not extend the deal beyond 1 October. It ended that day. Paris wants an EU-wide returns arrangement instead.

Mahmood’s £56,000 figure is higher than the Home Office’s £48,800 average for an enforced return. “The numbers are still relatively small,” she told MPs.

The inspector found the pilot proved a linked returns deal “can be established and made to work”, and the Home Office has accepted all three of his recommendations. A Home Office spokesman said numbers were “down significantly on last year”. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “First the government laughably claimed they would ‘smash the gangs’. Now their one in one out deal has failed.”

Our view: a scheme that cost £56,000 a head, sent back fewer than four in 100 and let France turn people down with a one-word answer was never going to stop the boats.

Read more: Brussels wants British cash for its Channel boats plan, on top of £662m to France

Sources

• Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, 10 November 2026: An inspection of the UK-France Agreement (Operation Hillmore), March to June 2026, paragraphs 2.5, 4.9, 4.10, 6.15, 7.2, 7.6
• BBC News, 15 September 2026: Shabana Mahmood to MPs: about £56,000 per person returned
• Home Office: Small boat arrivals time series (6 November 2026 release), 6 August 2025 to 30 June 2026
• Daily Mail, 10 November 2026: Returns to 30 June 2026; Chris Philp and Home Office reaction
• Daily Express, 10 November 2026: Watchdog report coverage

Main image: Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood speaking in London, UK Home Office, CC BY 4.0, with a seized small boat at Dover, UK Home Office, CC BY 2.0.