Support our Nation today - please donate here
News

Starmer and Macron detail one in, one out migrant returns scheme

10 Jul 2025 3 minute read
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron host a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in London. Image: Leon Neal/PA Wire

Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed a plan to send back small boats migrants, with an asylum seeker being sent to the UK in exchange.

The Prime Minister said the scheme would help “finally turn the tables” on the migrant crisis in the English Channel.

Under the pilot scheme, people arriving on a small boat can be detained and returned to France for the first time.

The Prime Minister set out the plan at the conclusion of Mr Macron’s three-day state visit to the UK.

At a joint press conference with Mr Macron, he said: “There is no silver bullet here, but with a united effort, new tactics and a new level of intent, we can finally turn the tables.”

Return

Under the “groundbreaking” pilot scheme, “for the very first time, migrants arriving via small boat will be detained and returned to France in short order”.

“In exchange for every return, a different individual will be allowed to come here via a safe route, controlled and legal, subject to strict security checks and only open to those who have not tried to enter the UK illegally.”

The Prime Minister said the pilot scheme, which will begin within weeks, “will show others trying to make the same journey that it will be in vain”.

“Working together”

Explaining why the UK would take someone in exchange for a returned small boat migrant, Sir Keir said: “We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need.

“But there is also something else, something more practical which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won’t play ball.

“That is why today’s agreement is so important, because we will solve this, like so many of our problems, by working together.”

The Prime Minister promised that the jobs migrants have been promised in the UK “will no longer exist because of the nationwide crackdown we’re delivering on illegal working, which is on a completely unprecedented scale”.

His comments follow Mr Macron’s warnings about the “pull factors” luring people into travelling through Europe to reach the northern French coast in the hope of reaching the UK.


Support our Nation today

For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest


2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Frank
Frank
18 days ago

Don’t hold your breath for this new agreement to work. It will probably end all one-sided with the UK picking up the tab as usual and the French millions of quids in.

Bart
Bart
18 days ago
Reply to  Frank

There’s only one way to solve this and that’s return to the system that was working before we left. We didn’t need hotels in 2016.

Our Supporters

All information provided to Nation.Cymru will be handled sensitively and within the boundaries of the Data Protection Act 2018.

Complete your gift to make an impact