𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour’s one-in one-out migrant deal with France has collapsed after talks between London and Paris broke down.

The Home Office confirmed new cases are no longer being processed.

And officials have admitted that too few people were removed under the scheme.

Some 1,500 small boat arrivals were sent back to France, while “just under 1,500 individuals” moved the other way.

Paris wanted the UK to agree to a EU-wide deal, which would have led to the UK taking asylum seekers from the continent.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We continue to work with France to relentlessly tackle small boat crossings, and we’ve made real progress. Numbers are significantly down on last year, and crossings this summer were the lowest in six years.

“The Government’s pilot with France to remove asylum seekers in exchange for an equal number of legal migrants is no longer processing new cases.

“However, flights will continue over the coming weeks to swiftly remove small boat migrants from the UK, and we will use lessons learned from the pilot to accelerate efforts to return small boat migrants with no right to remain in the UK.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is another borders humiliation for the Labour government. First their laughable promise to smash the gangs disintegrated.

“Then the plans to get the French to stops boats launching in shallow water fell apart.

“And now this. With 95% of illegal channel migrants allowed to stay in the UK, no wonder almost 20,000 have crossed so far this year with over 1,000 arriving last week alone.”

Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “There’s an urgent imperative to shut down illegal migration and defeat the evil people smuggling gangs.

“The global asylum system is broken and we need the Rwanda partnership which other countries including the US are using to stop illegal migration.

“Those leftwing naysayers in the Labour Party and human rights lawyers milking the legal aid system have shown no interest in tackling this issue. Enough of this nonsense. It is time to bring back Rwanda.”

Home Office insiders insisted Channel migrants already detained for deportation will still be removed.

And sources said that “while it had some successes and the government would have willingly seen it continue, it did not reach our desired scale.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has set up a new Small Boats Returns Taskforce in a desperate bid to ramp up deportations.

Immigration chiefs will be particularly disappointed because the deal with Paris was one of the few ways they could remove some of the biggest cohorts of small boat migrants.

Duncan Capps, the Border Security Commander, said in his annual report: “This pilot creates the opportunity to remove people from the UK who have historically been very difficult to return to their countries of origin.”

But Labour’s disastrous deal with Paris contributed to a shortage of immigration detention spaces, Border Force insiders said.

And this led to more foreign criminals being released into the community on immigration bail, they claim, leaving families “less safe”.

The Home Office has strenuously disputed this, stating that decisions on bailing foreign offenders are not based on detention space.

They say such criminals released from prison can only be lawfully detained under immigration powers if there is a realistic prospect of their removal within a reasonable timeframe.

Small boat arrivals earmarked for removal to France – under Operation Hillmore – are being held in the Home Office’s immigration detention estate.

But watchdog inspectors have warned they are being kept for longer than other cohorts, fuelling a shortage of beds as the Government tries to ramp up removals.

A Border Force insider told the Sunday Express: “It will certainly come as a relief to Immigration Enforcement.

“We are blocking most of the detention space available for the Home Office, which means that they are not able to arrest and detain people when they find illegal immigrants living in the country.

“We’ve had to release a lot of foreign national offenders and release them back into the community because we haven’t got the detention space for them.”

They added: “We do our best to hold people where we possibly can – where there is a significant threat, where they are a threat to national security.

“But you’ve got everything from fare dodging through to manslaughter, rape, murder.”

A scathing report by the Independent Monitoring Boards – who monitor conditions in custody suites – warned migrants earmarked for removal to France are being held for longer than other cohorts.

Some are being detained so that the Home Office can fill deportation flights, it suggested.

Inspectors told new Border Security Minister Anna Turley: “Stays in detention under this pilot scheme have been unduly lengthy, despite numerous individuals ultimately being bailed or given unconditional release.

“Whilst the average was 54 days, which is already higher than national averages for those not detained under Operation Hillmore, by late February, 79 men at Gatwick under Operation Hillmore had been detained for over 60 days, and one man had spent over 27 weeks in detention.

“Boards are concerned that more individuals are coming into detention under the Operation than are going out.

“Explanations provided by the Home Office suggest that a sizeable number of people are being kept in detention for operational convenience, in order for there to be enough individuals readily available for return to France: on a weekly basis they ‘need to have 150 coming into detention to manage attrition and legal challenge’ by making sure there are ‘sufficient people in detention’ for the UK – France Agreement.”

Ms Turley pushed back, telling the IMB last week: “Individuals are not detained for operational convenience.

“Published Home Office detention policy is clear that detention for the purpose of removal must only ever be used where there is a realistic prospect of removal within a reasonable timeframe.

“Officials work to ensure that detention is for the shortest period necessary while removal to France is progressed.”

Some 1,400 migrants have been removed to France since the one-in-one-out deal came into force in August 2025.

But Home Office figures show 21,294 convicted crooks are living in the community because they have not been deported.

This is up by more than 1,000 in the past three months alone, with officials blaming the Government’s changes to sentencing rules.