The UK government is spending about £56,000 for every migrant returned to France under its “one in, one out” agreement, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.
Mahmood disclosed the estimate while appearing before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday, 15 September. She said she would write to the committee to confirm the precise figure.
The amount is an estimated operational cost associated with returning each person. It is not money given directly to the migrant.
How the agreement works
Under the agreement, the UK can return some people who arrive across the English Channel in small boats to France.
In exchange, the UK accepts an equivalent number of people from France through a legal route, provided they meet the relevant eligibility and security requirements.
The arrangement began in August 2025 as a pilot intended to test whether migrants arriving through unauthorised Channel crossings could be returned to France.
About 1,400 people have since been returned under the scheme, according to evidence given to MPs.
Cost higher than previous estimate
The reported £56,000 cost is higher than the Home Office’s previous estimated average of £48,800 for an enforced migrant return.
Mahmood defended the expenditure, saying it was roughly equal to, or possibly lower than, the cost of accommodating one asylum seeker in a hotel for a year.
However, she acknowledged that the number of returns remains relatively small and that expanding the operation has proved difficult.
“What has been more operationally difficult is to scale up very large numbers of removals every week into the French system,” she told the committee.
She described the arrangement as a “proof of concept”, arguing that it had shown that returns to France could be organised under a bilateral agreement.
The Home Secretary’s evidence formed part of a wider Home Affairs Committee session examining immigration, asylum reform, Channel crossings and the work of the Home Office.
Questions over value and impact
The disclosure is likely to intensify debate over whether the policy provides value for taxpayers.
Critics have questioned whether returning around 1,400 people can provide a strong deterrent when thousands continue to cross the Channel. The government maintains that the arrangement forms part of a broader effort to disrupt smuggling networks and reduce dangerous journeys.
Mahmood said the government had received reports suggesting that some migrants were reconsidering small-boat crossings because they believed they might qualify to enter the UK through the legal side of the scheme.
She nevertheless accepted that the programme had faced operational challenges and had not yet reached the scale required to transform the wider picture.
Future of the deal remains uncertain
The pilot was originally due to end in June 2026 but was extended into October.
France has indicated that it would prefer the bilateral arrangement to be replaced eventually by a wider agreement between the UK and the European Union.
Mahmood cautioned against treating an EU-wide returns arrangement as a complete solution. She argued that the existing UK-France deal had already returned more people than Britain managed under the European Union’s former Dublin system.
Reporting by The Guardian also put the number returned at about 1,400 since the scheme began.
The £56,000 figure should presently be treated as the Home Secretary’s estimate rather than a final audited cost. A fuller assessment will depend on the written breakdown she has promised to provide to Parliament.
