One in, one out has returned 1,087 people to France, against 27,920 small boat arrivals

1,087 people returned to France. 27,920 arrived by small boat. Between 6 August 2025, when the UK-France agreement began operating, and 30 June 2026, the Home Office returned 1,087 people to France and accepted 1,117 transferred to the UK in exchange. Over exactly the same dates, 27,920 people were detected crossing the Channel in small boats.

That is a return for about 3.9% of arrivals. The Home Office does not publish that ratio: it is our calculation, dividing its published returns by the sum of its own daily small boats series over the same dates.

Returns have risen, unevenly. The scheme started slowly, dipped in December and February, and has picked up since March. Setting each month’s returns against that month’s arrivals gives a sense of scale, not the fate of that month’s arrivals, since a person returned in June may have crossed earlier.

Month	Returned to France	Small boat arrivals	Returns as a share
September 2025	17	5,084	0.3%
December 2025	64	2,180	2.9%
March 2026	109	2,232	4.9%
April 2026	142	1,975	7.2%
May 2026	218	2,726	8.0%
June 2026	264	2,742	9.6%

The pilot’s extension ends on 1 October 2026. The agreement was extended from June by an exchange of letters between the two governments, which came into force on 9 June 2026 and runs “until 1 October 2026”. As of 27 September 2026 no further extension has been published.

What this does not show. Returns under the agreement are one route out among several: the Home Office also removes and deports people by other means, counted in its quarterly returns statistics. And because the UK takes one person from France for each one returned, the agreement is an exchange rather than a reduction in numbers.

Small boat arrivals so far this year, updated every week: how many small boats have crossed this year.

Sources: Home Office, transfers into and returns from the UK under the UK-France agreement, published 16 July 2026. Home Office, small boats time series, daily arrivals, file of 25 September 2026. UK/France exchange of letters extending the agreement, Treaty Series No. 25/2026. Open Government Licence v3.0.