UK and France rewrite ‘one in one out’ treaty to stop removed migrants returning

The UK and France have been forced to rewrite the “one in, one out” deal because of concerns over the numbers of people re-entering the UK after being removed to the continent. The original treaty said people arriving in small boats could be returned to France. But people smugglers have used lorries to bring people who had been deported to France under the deal back to the UK. Shabana Mahmood, the UK home secretary, has agreed with her French counterpart to amend the treaty so that previously deported “one in, one out” migrants who return to Britain by lorry can be sent back to France again. To close the loophole, the Home Office created a new classification of claimant, a “returnee case”, according to documents first disclosed by the Times . The UK has removed to France 921 migrants who arrived on small boats since the treaty came into effect on 6 August last year, which represents 3.5% of all such arrivals in the same period. The UK has accepted 896 asylum seekers from France in that time, under the reciprocal deal. The treaty stipulated that Britain could send illegal Channel migrants back to France in return for taking the same number of asylum seekers. At least four people who had been deported under the scheme travelled back to the UK by lorry over a two-week period in March and this followed at least two in the autumn. …