De : Maël Galisson mael.galisson@gmail.com
« The Guardian », 11 septembre 2026
*Hundreds of asylum seekers removed from UK to France have disappeared, say
NGOs*
*Rights groups say those missing after being deported under one in, one out
deal include dozens of age-disputed children*
by Diane Taylor
Hundreds of asylum seekers including at least 41 age-disputed children who
were removed to France https://www.theguardian.com/world/france under the
“one in, one out” deal have disappeared, human rights organisations have
said.
The pilot scheme was hailed as “groundbreaking” by the former prime
minister Keir Starmer when he and the French president, Emmanuel
Macron, announced
it
in July 2025. Under a treaty drawn up for this agreement, it forcibly
returns small-boat asylum seekers to France in exchange for others brought
legally to the UK from France.
The deal is due to expire on 1 October
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/jun/24/one-in-one-out-deal-channel-crossings-to-end-reports
and at the moment it is not known what, if anything, will replace it.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is reportedly pushing for the deal to
be extended and scaled up, and the French government has indicated it wants
the scheme to be expanded Europe-wide rather than France having to accept
small-boat returnees alone.
One French politician told the Guardian that so far France’s overtures to
other countries to take back a share of small-boat asylum seekers had
received a negative response.
About 1,400 small-boat arrivals have been returned to France since
September 2025, just 4% of 32,000 who have crossed the Channel since the
deal was signed. These figures do not include the significant minority who
have come back to the UK a second time, some of whom are now living under
the radar here. The UK and France amended the treaty
to allow for people returning to the UK in lorries to be sent back to
France a second time.
At a meeting in parliament this week chaired by Mike German, a general
rapporteur on asylum and migration policy for the parliamentary assembly of
the Council of Europe, and Alex Sobel, the new chair of parliament’s joint
committee on human rights, parliamentarians were told about the
disappearances and other concerns about the scheme by NGO representatives
working on the ground.
Maddie Harris, the director of the Humans For Rights Network, said several
NGOs had between them compiled a list of at least 41 age-disputed children
and young people whom they claimed had been unlawfully returned to France.
It is unlawful to detain lone children in adult immigration detention
centres, and they are excluded from the one in, one out treaty.
The Home Office https://www.theguardian.com/politics/home-office disputed
this and told the Guardian: “This is categorically untrue. Nobody has
been returned to France where their age is in dispute.
“Every detained person is advised of their right to legal representation
and how they can obtain such representation within 24 hours of arrival at
an immigration removal centre. Age assessments are carried out to maintain
the integrity of our border, while ensuring those genuinely under 18
receive the appropriate support.”
However, the prisons and detention Independent Monitoring Boards have
reported that almost a hundred children had been identified as unlawfully
detained as adults
for the scheme. The IMBs’ interim chair, Jane Leech, attended the meeting
and raised concerns that some people were being unlawfully detained for the
scheme because the Home Office was “detaining more people than they can
remove”.
French politicians have told the Guardian that only 200 people forcibly
returned to France were still in contact with the authorities there, with
hundreds of others having gone underground in countries across Europe.
The Guardian has interviewed dozens of returnees who are no longer in
contact with the French authorities and are living underground in Europe.
They say they have disappeared due to hostility from the French
authorities, pressure to return to their home countries where they believe
they will be unsafe, or the threat of being forced back to other European
countries such as Bulgaria that they passed through on their journeys.
Home Office sources said that what happened to people once they were
returned to France was a matter for the French authorities. France’s
interior ministry declined to comment on the disappearances.
Harris said the forced return of lone children to France was “shameful”.
She said: “We support many children detained under this scheme and attempt
to secure their release. However, at least 41 children have been removed
from the UK to France and their whereabouts is currently unknown. The vast
majority of these children have experienced acute violence and exploitation
and are now without protection somewhere in Europe.”
Nihal Osman, a programme coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières, told the
parliamentary meeting that asylum seekers were returned to France from the
UK in a “deeply concerning” condition, with many displaying severe
psychological symptoms such as flashbacks, acute anxiety, self-harm,
suicidal thoughts and psychological breakdown.
“What we are witnessing is the accumulation of trauma on trauma,” she said.
Sobel said he was “deeply concerned” about the ongoing securitisation of
the French border to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel to the UK.
“The French police are doing things it would be unacceptable for British
police to do,” he said.