{"id":767356,"date":"2026-09-11T14:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767356\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:56:11","slug":"hundreds-of-asylum-seekers-removed-from-uk-to-france-have-disappeared-say-ngos-immigration-and-asylum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/767356\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of asylum seekers removed from UK to France have disappeared, say NGOs | Immigration and asylum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of asylum seekers including at least 41 age-disputed children who were removed to France<\/a> under the \u201cone in, one out\u201d deal have disappeared, human rights organisations have said.<\/p>\n

The pilot scheme was hailed as \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d by the former prime minister Keir Starmer when he and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced it<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

The deal is due to expire on 1 October<\/a> and at the moment it is not known what, if anything, will replace it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

One French politician told the Guardian that so far France\u2019s overtures to other countries to take back a share of small-boat asylum seekers had received a negative response.<\/p>\n

A refugee folding a blanket at a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Calais. Photograph: Kiran Ridley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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<\/a> to allow for people returning to the UK in lorries to be sent back to France a second time.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s joint committee on human rights, parliamentarians were told about the disappearances and other concerns about the scheme by NGO representatives working on the ground.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Home Office<\/a> disputed this and told the Guardian: \u201cThis is categorically untrue. Nobody has been returned to France where their age is in dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

A screengrab from video issued by the Home Office shows Border Force officers processing small-boat migrants, including biometric and security checks, before their relocation to an immigration removal centre to await their return to France. Photograph: Home Office\/PA<\/p>\n

However, the prisons and detention Independent Monitoring Boards have reported that almost a hundred children had been identified as unlawfully detained as adults<\/a> for the scheme. The IMBs\u2019 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 \u201cdetaining more people than they can remove\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Home Office sources said that what happened to people once they were returned to France was a matter for the French authorities. France\u2019s interior ministry declined to comment on the disappearances.<\/p>\n

Border Force officers processing small-boat arrivals detained under the one in, one out deal at the Manston immigration centre in Kent. Photograph: Home Office\/PA<\/p>\n

Harris said the forced return of lone children to France was \u201cshameful\u201d. She said: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nihal Osman, a programme coordinator for M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res, told the parliamentary meeting that asylum seekers were returned to France from the UK in a \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d condition, with many displaying severe psychological symptoms such as flashbacks, acute anxiety, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and psychological breakdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are witnessing is the accumulation of trauma on trauma,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sobel said he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d about the ongoing securitisation of the French border to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel to the UK. \u201cThe French police are doing things it would be unacceptable for British police to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of asylum seekers including at least 41 age-disputed children who were removed to France under the \u201cone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-767356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}