LONDON, United Kingdom – The United Kingdom's new migrant returns agreement with France faced renewed scrutiny on Monday, November 10, 2025, after the Home Office confirmed a second individual deported under the scheme had returned to the UK on a small boat. The incident marks a significant setback for the bilateral treaty, raising critical questions about its viability as a deterrent for dangerous English Channel crossings.

The unnamed man, whose nationality has not been disclosed, was detected among nearly 400 people who arrived on Sunday, November 9, 2025. According to a Home Office spokesperson, he was immediately identified using biometric data and taken into detention. "His case will be expedited, and he will be returned to France as quickly as possible," the spokesperson stated, adding, "Anyone looking to return to the UK after being removed under the UK-France agreement is wasting their time and money."

This is the second confirmed case of its kind. An Iranian asylum seeker who was removed to France on September 19 also returned via a small boat on October 18 before being deported again on November 5. These repeated returns undermine a central pillar of the government's strategy to "smash the gangs" and prove that irregular journeys are futile.

A Strained Agreement Under Scrutiny

The "one in, one out" pilot scheme, which came into force on August 6, 2025, allows the UK to return some asylum seekers who arrive via small boats to France. In exchange, the UK agrees to accept an equal number of asylum seekers from France through a formal, legal route, prioritising those with family links to the UK. The agreement is intended to run as a pilot until June 2026.

As of early November 2025, the Home Office reported that 94 migrants had been removed to France under the treaty, while 57 had been accepted into the UK through the corresponding legal pathway. However, critics have consistently argued the scheme's scope is too limited to have a meaningful impact. With initial reports suggesting a target of only 50 returns per week, this represents a small fraction of the total arrivals. More than 39,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far in 2025, a figure that has already surpassed the total for all of 2024.

Human rights organisations have condemned the policy, arguing it risks violating international law by denying individuals a fair hearing of their asylum claims based on their mode of arrival. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), while welcoming principled cooperation between states, has stressed that access to asylum should never be contingent on how a person arrives in a country.

Global Migration Challenges: A Kenyan Perspective

While the events in the English Channel are geographically distant, the underlying challenges of managing irregular migration, border security, and humanitarian obligations resonate strongly in East Africa. Kenya, for instance, is a major host nation for refugees, primarily from Somalia and South Sudan, and contends with its own complex cross-border movements. The UK's struggle to implement a workable returns policy with a close partner like France highlights the immense practical and political difficulties involved in international migration management—a reality familiar to policymakers in Nairobi.

The UK's broader immigration policies continue to evolve and have direct implications for Kenyans. Recent changes have tightened rules for family reunions and increased salary thresholds for skilled worker visas, affecting many, including Kenyan healthcare professionals recruited to work in the UK. In July 2025, Kenyan President William Ruto and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer renewed a 'Strategic Partnership' which included a new security agreement to disrupt organised immigration crime and human trafficking in Kenya to prevent onward migration to Europe. This positions Kenya as a key partner in the UK's wider strategy to manage migration flows closer to their source.

The repeated failures of the UK-France deal serve as a case study in the limitations of enforcement-heavy policies that do not adequately address the root causes of displacement or the powerful draw of economic and social ties. For countries like Kenya, which are integral to regional stability and migration routes, the outcomes of European policies are not merely academic; they inform a global conversation on shared responsibility and the search for sustainable, humane solutions to forced displacement.

As the UK government insists its biometric systems are working to detect returnees, the revolving door on the Channel continues to turn, demonstrating that without addressing the fundamental drivers of migration, even sophisticated enforcement mechanisms may fall short.