UK-France migration returns cost about £56,000 per person, MPs told
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood defended the approximate cost as comparable to accommodating someone in a hotel for a year.
The UK’s “one in, one out” migration arrangement has cost about £56,000 for each person returned to France, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told MPs.
Mahmood disclosed the approximate figure while giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, which was examining whether the scheme was delivering value for taxpayers. She said the Home Office would provide the committee with the most recent figures in writing.
About 1,400 people have been returned to France since the pilot began in August 2025. The arrangement allows some small-boat arrivals to be sent back to France while the UK accepts asylum seekers applying through legal routes.
Mahmood defended the cost by saying it was about the same as, or cheaper than, supporting someone in a hotel for a year. The figure has not been independently verified and may not represent a final or fully itemised cost.
She said the scheme had been difficult to expand because of operational constraints, including limited detention space. Some people returned to France have subsequently come back to the UK by lorry or small boat, although the number is unspecified.
The pilot is due to continue until October 2026, with its longer-term future unresolved. France has indicated it wants the bilateral arrangement replaced by a broader returns agreement between the UK and European Union, while Mahmood rejected the idea that an EU-wide system would resolve the Channel crossings crisis.
The Guardian Politics reported that a separate voluntary-return pilot, offering failed asylum-seeking families up to £40,000 to leave the UK, has attracted only relatively small numbers.
