The UK and France are reportedly close to announcing a migrant removal deal which would see both countries agree a “one-in, one-out” policy.
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These new measures would mean a person being deported from the UK could be exchanged for another in France who has a right to be in Britain.
The person arriving in the UK would need a legitimate case to enter the country, a new report by The Times said.
Sir Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron will reportedly announce the agreement next week in a bid to crack down on small boat crossings across the Channel.
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A Downing Street source told The Times: “It’ll start as a pilot but it’s to prove the point that if you pay for your passage on a boat then you could quite quickly find yourself back in France.”
Any deal of this kind would mark a significant shift in France’s attitude towards the so-called small boat crisis, with the EU nation previously being reluctant to agree plans to reduce crossings.
The agreement would only be a pilot scheme, the Times adds, designed to show “proof of concept.”
The Tory party has slammed the proposed deal, with Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, saying: “We pay the French half a billion pounds to wave the boats off from Calais, and in return we get a migrant merry-go-round where the same number still come here.
“The French are failing to stop the boats at sea, failing to return them like the Belgians do, and now instead of demanding real enforcement, Labour are trying a one in, one out gimmick.
“If Labour were serious, they would not have scrapped the returns deterrent the National Crime Agency said we needed — instead, they’ve surrendered our immigration system.”
