The Home Office only has 12 staff working on its ‘one-in, one-out’ returns deal, according to Britain’s border security commander.
The agreement, made in July, sees France accept asylum seekers who crossed from its shores to the UK but cannot prove a family connection there.
The scheme agreed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron sees that for each one it takes, Britain grants asylum to another who has arrived from France.
But Martin Hewitt admitted to the Commons home affairs select committee the small size of the team dedicated to working on the deal, The Times reports.
He emphasised to MPs ‘a whole host of other people’ are involved in the process too.
The official pointed to staff who process migrants selected for removal at the Manston centre in Kent.
He also noted those at the immigration detention centre at Heathrow, where migrants are held before deportation to France.
And overall, more than 5,000 civil servants in the Home Office and National Crime Agency (NCA) are working on the small boats crisis.
Border Security Command, the immigration enforcement agency Hewitt heads up after his appointment a year ago, funds around 1,000 of them.
Some 26 migrants have been removed under the one-in, one-out deal so far.
To date this year, 36,365 migrants have crossed the Channel, which is a third more than by this time last year.
The record was set in 2022, when 37,099 migrants had arrived by this time of the year.
Mr Hewitt said: ‘I, more than anybody, find the numbers frustrating and really challenging, and this issue could not be more high-profile.
‘But I am convinced that the plan, the sort of cross-spectrum plan that we have in place, is a plan that will deliver, but we need to keep pushing and delivering that plan.’
He also told the committee of his frustration that the scheme has been beset by other difficulties too.
The official said bureaucratic and legal difficulties have prevented French police officers starting to intercept small boats up to 300m from the coast.
He explained the force is still being given specialist training to make sure they are not liable for any deaths which happen in the process.
It also comes amid instability in the French government, which collapsed earlier this month, for the third time in a year.
Though prime minister Sebastien Lecornu was reappointed after his resignation, surviving two confidence votes, interior minister Bruno Retailleau who pushed through the changes at the border has been replaced.
The French government had promised officers would be out intercepting dinghies by the end of the summer.
But currently, they cannot legally step in once the boats are on the water unless passengers ask to be rescued.
Delays to implementation have also come from the French police union, which has requested better equipment and protection.
Mr Hewitt said the prevention of crossings will be made easier once officers are able to intervene.
But when asked about it by the Commons committee, he said ‘we await that being deployed’.
The commander continued: ‘This was referred to by President Macron at the summit in July when he spoke with the prime minister, so it is frustrating that it’s taken the time that it has… the political instability, clearly that has been a backdrop.’
He explained the rise in violence and deaths on Channel crossings on poor migrants from the Horn of Africa storming small boats without paying for their passage.
Eritrea was the most common nationality of migrants crossing the Channel in the first half of this year, with 3,543 from the country making the journey.
Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, meanwhile, were all in the top eight.
NCA director-general of operations, Rob Jones, explained to the Commons committee: ‘What has happened this year is the Horn of Africa cohort, through their violent behaviour and then through an accommodation with the smugglers, have driven those numbers up, and that’s what we’re talking about in terms of injuries and fatalities.’
Some 18 migrants have come from France to the UK as part of the ‘inward’ route agreed with Mr Macron’s government in the summer as of last week.
Meanwhile, 10,040 small boat migrants have reached Dover by small boat since the scheme launched on August 6.
It included 1,075 on Wednesday last week week alone.
Sir Keir scrapped the Conservatives’ Rwanda asylum deal as one of his first acts in office.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour is swindling the British public. This is just a massive con.
‘Since the deal became operational over 10,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the Channel and Labour have removed a mere 26. This will obviously not deter anyone.
‘We need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights which will enable us to deport people in days – this would be a real deterrent.’
But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood trumpeted the numbers removed from Britain under the new deal with France.
‘The contrast couldn’t be clearer. The last government’s Rwanda scheme took years and cost hundreds of millions of pounds, and failed to forcefully remove a single person,’ she said.
‘In a matter of weeks, we’ve returned 26 through our historic agreement with France.
‘We must put an end to these dangerous crossings which put lives at risk and money in the pockets of criminal gangs.
‘With flights to France now underway and ramping up, we are sending out a clear message: if you come here illegally, you face being detained and removed, so think twice before making that journey.’
The Home Office released images of migrants being sent back to France – the first time they have used a charter flight for removals under the scheme.
It comes as people traffickers have begun using deadly ‘mega dinghies’ to send migrants on their perilous journey across the Channel.
At the end of last month one of the massively overloaded inflatables – at around 40ft – was photographed on the Channel for the first time.
Labour has said the ‘one in, one out’ scheme will undermine people traffickers’ tactics and ‘smash the gangs’ by persuading would-be migrants that crossing the Channel may be fruitless.
But the programme has been slow to take off after being mired in legal difficulties and even when fully up and running is expected to remove only around 50 migrants a week.
The all-time record for daily arrivals is 1,305, set on September 3, 2022.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
