Britain and France have rewritten the ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal nearly a year after it came into effect. The treaty, described as ‘groundbreaking’ by both countries last summer, has struggled to stem the numbers of migrants heading from France to England in small boats.
It soon became apparent that the deal contained a loophole that enabled a handful of deported migrants to return to Britain in the back of a lorry. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has agreed with her French counterpart, Laurent Nuñez, to close this loophole by tweaking the treaty to stipulate that its terms apply to any returning migrant regardless of whether they enter a second time by boat or by vehicle.
Frankly, though, with Keir Starmer’s resignation yesterday, the redraft is irrelevant and its promulgation is a sign of how desperate the British government has become. According to the latest government figures, 1,602 migrants have crossed the Channel in 23 small boats in the last week alone, bringing the total for this year so far to more than 10,000. The figure will likely soar in the coming weeks as England and France bask in a heatwave that makes for ideal seafaring weather. Last Monday, 710 migrants arrived in England in a fleet of eleven boats. That is 221 migrants fewer than the total number removed by Britain since the ‘one in, one out’ deal was passed into law. In exchange, Britain has received 896 asylum seekers from France.
