An asylum seeker brought to the UK by the Home Office has said it feels unjust that he was allowed into the country only because someone else was deported.
The individual benefited from the “one in” part of the controversial “one in, one out” scheme, where one asylum seeker who reached the UK on a small boat is forcibly returned to France in exchange for another being brought legally to Britain.
In the first interview with an asylum seeker brought to the UK legally, the man said: “I am very happy to be here, but it’s not fair that another asylum seeker who may have a very similar case to mine but arrived in a small boat has been sent back to France so I can come here legally,” the asylum seeker, who the Guardian is not naming to protect his anonymity.
“I don’t support sending some people back to France so that others like me can come to the UK.”
More than 900 people have been allowed into the UK to apply for asylum under the scheme since it was announced last July, with a similar number who arrived here irregularly moved out.
The charity Safe Passage, which supports asylum seeker families in France trying to come to the UK legally, condemned the policy as “not a genuine route to protection”.
The asylum seeker acknowledged that his legal journey to the UK – by plane from Paris – was much safer and speedier than the crossings made by people risking their lives in small boats, but said he is in limbo here while he waits for his asylum claim to be determined.
“We are waiting for our main asylum interview and have nothing to do while we wait,” he said.
“I applied for a university scholarship, but was told I am not eligible because I am an asylum seeker. I am doing some volunteering, but by not allowing us to work or study and just waiting, the Home Office is teaching us to be lazy.”
He added: “I am in a hotel with others brought to the UK legally, and I have only seen other single men like me.”
The asylum seeker said that he applied for the “in” scheme online.
“They took our biometrics and passports in Paris and then we were taken to a hotel and told to wait until 5pm to find out if temporary visas had been approved for us to travel to UK by plane,” he said. “Those who were approved were taken to the airport in Paris and flown to the UK.”
He said that on arrival in Britain, he and the rest of the “in” group were taken to a Home Office building. “They took us from a parking basement into an elevator for the Home Office interview so I don’t know exactly where it was.”
He said Home Office staff dealt with the process in a diplomatic way and were “so nice and friendly”.
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Gunes Kalkan, head of campaigns at Safe Passage, said that while the charity welcomed the provision of a safe route from France to the UK, challenges with the scheme – such as the length of time it takes to process applications on arrival – were “preventing it from being a genuine route to protection in the UK”.
Earlier this year, the French national assembly’s commission of inquiry into arrangements between the UK and France to manage migration at the Anglo-French border heard that, as of February 2026, 89% of people brought to the UK under “one in, one out” were single men aged between 20 and 39.
The inquiry also heard that, while small boat crossings are down, the scheme had not yet acted as a deterrent.
More recent figures show that Channel crossings in the first five months of this year are down by more than a third on the same period last year. More than 2,000 people crossed last month, compared with 3,665 people in June 2025.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Multiple families have made a successful application under the UK-France agreement, and applications continue to be processed with thorough consideration.
“All individuals transferred to the UK under the agreement are subject to robust security and identity checks before travel. Those who do not pass these checks will not be transferred to the UK.”