Numbers will initially be small for this 'one in one out' Channel crossings deal, but it's the best chance we have right now for tackling the small boats issue.

Big news from the UK-France summit. Starmer announces a pilot 1:1 returns deal. For each person returned to France, one person will be admitted to the UK. A good first step towards addressing mixed migration in a way that shares, rather than transfers responsibility.

Worth noting that this article suggests that they are looking at moving people who have a pending US asylum claim. Unclear how they would handle processing in Liberia or another third country. Who would be responsible? Where would people receive residency if asylum was granted?

UNHCR welcomes UK-France readmission pilot, with a reminder that it would be helpful to engage with people even earlier on in their journeys. unhcr.org/europe/news/pr…

An excellent Bluesky thread from the peerless Steve Peers, identifying the unanswered questions about the UK-France deportation and readmission deal: bsky.app/profile/stevep…

The European Commission initially indicated it was skeptical of the UK-France agreement, back in July. But they seem to have come around, with Brunner now saying he "welcomes" the arrangement.

US to start sending deported migrants to Rwanda. Very much not the first time this has been tried. Rwanda has a long history of this sort of agreement with high-income countries, beginning with Israel in 2013. reuters.com/world/africa/r…

"Rwanda agrees to take up to 250 migrant deportees Rwanda is the latest African country to head Trump administration’s demands to receive third country migrants." From Felicia Schwartz politico.com/news/2025/08/0…

Very much worth a listen!

Book review! My thoughts on Nik Tan's excellent and thought-provoking new study, 'Transnational asylum: towards a principled framework' docs.google.com/document/d/1tq…