ianstone
07-18-2010, 10:51 AM
Britain pays Calais migrants £3,500 to go home - before they even get here
By Tom Harper (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tom+Harper)
Last updated at 8:40 AM on 18th July 2010
Comments (68) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#comments)
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British taxpayers have paid out more than £1 million to persuade hundreds of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to return home – before they even enter the UK.
Foreigners attempting to cross the English Channel at the French port of Calais are offered free flights and awarded up to £3,500 to help start businesses back home.
The Home Office-backed Global Calais Project has persuaded 468 ‘irregular migrants’ to return to their countries of origin at a cost of £1.2 million to the UK Exchequer.
Among those to take up the offer were 50 Afghans, 20 Sudanese, eight Libyans and five Indians – none of whom had a legal right to travel to or live in Britain.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/17/article-0-0A79B6A3000005DC-726_468x312.jpg Heading for Britain: Illegal immigrants board a lorry at Calais - the British taxpayers have paid more than £1m to send immigrants home
Last year, 281 illegal immigrants took advantage of the generous offer, a rate of more than five a week. The bizarre incentive is equivalent to 14 years’ wages for a worker in Afghanistan.
The Home Office claims the payout scheme, which began in 2007, helps avoid long, costly legal battles once the migrants arrive in the UK.
The payments emerged in a Freedom of Information request to
the Home Office by The Mail on Sunday. The department spent a year battling the release of the figures and agreed only after an intervention by the information watchdog.
The Home Office also admitted paying out almost £80 million in resettlement grants to 21,506 people who had already reached the UK. The sum is equivalent to the annual salaries of 800 family doctors or 3,200 teachers.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘It may look unpalatable to pay money to people who have not even arrived in the country, but ultimately it makes our borders safer and saves the taxpayer money. It is the least-worst option.
‘I will continue with the programme but I am reviewing it as I am determined to drive down on any waste.’
Taxpayer-funded repatriation schemes began under Labour
in 1999 but were widened dramatically in 2005 when Ministers raised the maximum payout from £1,000 to £4,000 in an attempt to combat the soaring number of illegal immigrants.
All the schemes are operated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an independent body that organises migrant removals for governments around the globe.
Created in 1951 to cope with the 11 million people uprooted by the Second World War, the IOM now employs 7,000 people in 127 offices worldwide. Since 2007, IOM officials have been paid by the Home Office to approach illegal immigrants stranded in Calais and tell them life will not be easy if they manage to get to Britain.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/17/article-0-0A7ABD73000005DC-924_468x251.jpg Concern: The Mail on Sunday report of the killer who got £4,500
They offer to transfer them to Paris, pay for flights home and promise retraining or business grants of up to £3,500 if the migrants agree to halt their journey into
the UK. The grants are distributed from IOM offices in the migrants’ countries of origin once they return home.
Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, said: ‘There is a real risk that people will hear of this and it will create a bizarre incentive for people to try to smuggle themselves into Britain. The solution could be worse than the disease.’
Back in Britain, the IOM administers other Home Office-backed schemes from its plush head offices in Westminster, Central London.
The Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP) pays failed asylum seekers who are already in the country up to £4,000 to drop their appeals and return home voluntarily.
Almost 17,000 failed asylum seekers from 122 countries have taken advantage of VARRP so far, including 1,597 Albanians, 289 Indians and 39 Poles.
In total, the Home Office admitted paying the IOM a total of £79.2 million over the past five years. Last year, this newspaper revealed that an immigrant convicted of the horrific killing of a 17-month-old baby was given £4,500 by the Government as a ‘bribe’ to leave the country.
Malaysian Agnes Wong, 29, was jailed for five years in 2008 for
the brutal manslaughter of a toddler she was supposed to be child-minding.
She was let out of prison in July last year and four months later was put on a plane at Heathrow and sent to Malaysia with a ‘voucher’ worth £4,500 to spend when she got there.
In 2007, it emerged that asylum seekers had used British taxpayer-funded grants to set up dozens of businesses, including an ostrich farm in Iran.
In addition to the resettlement payments, the Freedom of Information request also revealed that the Home Office awarded £6.2 million to foreign countries to help them improve their own border controls – including £1.4 million for training border officials and buying fingerprint scanners in France, Turkey and China.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Helping France remove irregular migrants from the Calais region is integral to reducing intake to the UK.
‘The vast majority of the funding goes directly on providing and promoting reintegration, which persuades those barred from entering Britain to go home.
‘This ultimately saves the British taxpayer from the cost of enforcing a removal.’
Comments (68)
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html)
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Odd that the government will cave in to this type of blackmail yet nothing much have been heard of the couple Paul and Rachel Chandler that were taken from their yacht by Somali pirates who cannot afford to pay the ransom.
Perhaps this is to show that the government does not respond to threats so the pirates will not take more hostages and demand money, but in the case of illegal immigrants (whoops! asylum seekers) though what kind of message is this sending, that it is now possible to become a career immigrant just by threatening to sit around in Calais near the docks?
- LeeW, Lancashire, 18/7/2010 03:00
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 142
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What is happening to this country? No wonder everything is going up in price & taxes etc, Now we know why & it's no wonder there are so many english brits out there with so much anger that asylum seekers are in our country. It's about time the goverment put this country first & help us. I believe there are plenty of english who would like help to start a business.Which would bring this county working again plus we can then maybe start being proud to be english
- Kev, Rochester, Kent, 18/7/2010 02:57
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 154
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Cheap in the long run
- Eric Grinham, Dee Why , Australia, 18/7/2010 02:52
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 151
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Why can't the government hire some decoy trucks and get them to fill up with Migrants and then take them to the other side of Frane and drop them off outside the borders of another country and tell them all they have to is to approach the guard and claim asylum. Job done and cheaper.
- John Gray, Washington, England, 18/7/2010 02:44
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 154
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I don`t believe this !!!
The EU law on asylum states that asylum seekers must apply in the first safe country they encounter.
We are paying them to try. repeat payments are possible. You don`t see france doing this.
Follow the law. If an asylum seeker comes via France they MUST be rejected due to EU law. But UK is a soft touch.
- chris, Manchester, 18/7/2010 02:39
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 165
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Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#ixzz0u2t5UJjf
By Tom Harper (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tom+Harper)
Last updated at 8:40 AM on 18th July 2010
Comments (68) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#comments)
[/URL]
British taxpayers have paid out more than £1 million to persuade hundreds of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to return home – before they even enter the UK.
Foreigners attempting to cross the English Channel at the French port of Calais are offered free flights and awarded up to £3,500 to help start businesses back home.
The Home Office-backed Global Calais Project has persuaded 468 ‘irregular migrants’ to return to their countries of origin at a cost of £1.2 million to the UK Exchequer.
Among those to take up the offer were 50 Afghans, 20 Sudanese, eight Libyans and five Indians – none of whom had a legal right to travel to or live in Britain.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/17/article-0-0A79B6A3000005DC-726_468x312.jpg Heading for Britain: Illegal immigrants board a lorry at Calais - the British taxpayers have paid more than £1m to send immigrants home
Last year, 281 illegal immigrants took advantage of the generous offer, a rate of more than five a week. The bizarre incentive is equivalent to 14 years’ wages for a worker in Afghanistan.
The Home Office claims the payout scheme, which began in 2007, helps avoid long, costly legal battles once the migrants arrive in the UK.
The payments emerged in a Freedom of Information request to
the Home Office by The Mail on Sunday. The department spent a year battling the release of the figures and agreed only after an intervention by the information watchdog.
The Home Office also admitted paying out almost £80 million in resettlement grants to 21,506 people who had already reached the UK. The sum is equivalent to the annual salaries of 800 family doctors or 3,200 teachers.
Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘It may look unpalatable to pay money to people who have not even arrived in the country, but ultimately it makes our borders safer and saves the taxpayer money. It is the least-worst option.
‘I will continue with the programme but I am reviewing it as I am determined to drive down on any waste.’
Taxpayer-funded repatriation schemes began under Labour
in 1999 but were widened dramatically in 2005 when Ministers raised the maximum payout from £1,000 to £4,000 in an attempt to combat the soaring number of illegal immigrants.
All the schemes are operated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), an independent body that organises migrant removals for governments around the globe.
Created in 1951 to cope with the 11 million people uprooted by the Second World War, the IOM now employs 7,000 people in 127 offices worldwide. Since 2007, IOM officials have been paid by the Home Office to approach illegal immigrants stranded in Calais and tell them life will not be easy if they manage to get to Britain.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/07/17/article-0-0A7ABD73000005DC-924_468x251.jpg Concern: The Mail on Sunday report of the killer who got £4,500
They offer to transfer them to Paris, pay for flights home and promise retraining or business grants of up to £3,500 if the migrants agree to halt their journey into
the UK. The grants are distributed from IOM offices in the migrants’ countries of origin once they return home.
Charlie Elphicke, Conservative MP for Dover, said: ‘There is a real risk that people will hear of this and it will create a bizarre incentive for people to try to smuggle themselves into Britain. The solution could be worse than the disease.’
Back in Britain, the IOM administers other Home Office-backed schemes from its plush head offices in Westminster, Central London.
The Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP) pays failed asylum seekers who are already in the country up to £4,000 to drop their appeals and return home voluntarily.
Almost 17,000 failed asylum seekers from 122 countries have taken advantage of VARRP so far, including 1,597 Albanians, 289 Indians and 39 Poles.
In total, the Home Office admitted paying the IOM a total of £79.2 million over the past five years. Last year, this newspaper revealed that an immigrant convicted of the horrific killing of a 17-month-old baby was given £4,500 by the Government as a ‘bribe’ to leave the country.
Malaysian Agnes Wong, 29, was jailed for five years in 2008 for
the brutal manslaughter of a toddler she was supposed to be child-minding.
She was let out of prison in July last year and four months later was put on a plane at Heathrow and sent to Malaysia with a ‘voucher’ worth £4,500 to spend when she got there.
In 2007, it emerged that asylum seekers had used British taxpayer-funded grants to set up dozens of businesses, including an ostrich farm in Iran.
In addition to the resettlement payments, the Freedom of Information request also revealed that the Home Office awarded £6.2 million to foreign countries to help them improve their own border controls – including £1.4 million for training border officials and buying fingerprint scanners in France, Turkey and China.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Helping France remove irregular migrants from the Calais region is integral to reducing intake to the UK.
‘The vast majority of the funding goes directly on providing and promoting reintegration, which persuades those barred from entering Britain to go home.
‘This ultimately saves the British taxpayer from the cost of enforcing a removal.’
Comments (68)
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html)
The comments below have been moderated in advance.
View all
Odd that the government will cave in to this type of blackmail yet nothing much have been heard of the couple Paul and Rachel Chandler that were taken from their yacht by Somali pirates who cannot afford to pay the ransom.
Perhaps this is to show that the government does not respond to threats so the pirates will not take more hostages and demand money, but in the case of illegal immigrants (whoops! asylum seekers) though what kind of message is this sending, that it is now possible to become a career immigrant just by threatening to sit around in Calais near the docks?
- LeeW, Lancashire, 18/7/2010 03:00
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 142
Report abuse (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/reportAbuseInComment.html?articleId=1295629&commentId=24789349)
What is happening to this country? No wonder everything is going up in price & taxes etc, Now we know why & it's no wonder there are so many english brits out there with so much anger that asylum seekers are in our country. It's about time the goverment put this country first & help us. I believe there are plenty of english who would like help to start a business.Which would bring this county working again plus we can then maybe start being proud to be english
- Kev, Rochester, Kent, 18/7/2010 02:57
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 154
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Cheap in the long run
- Eric Grinham, Dee Why , Australia, 18/7/2010 02:52
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 151
Report abuse (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/reportAbuseInComment.html?articleId=1295629&commentId=24789280)
Why can't the government hire some decoy trucks and get them to fill up with Migrants and then take them to the other side of Frane and drop them off outside the borders of another country and tell them all they have to is to approach the guard and claim asylum. Job done and cheaper.
- John Gray, Washington, England, 18/7/2010 02:44
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 154
Report abuse (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/reportAbuseInComment.html?articleId=1295629&commentId=24789255)
I don`t believe this !!!
The EU law on asylum states that asylum seekers must apply in the first safe country they encounter.
We are paying them to try. repeat payments are possible. You don`t see france doing this.
Follow the law. If an asylum seeker comes via France they MUST be rejected due to EU law. But UK is a soft touch.
- chris, Manchester, 18/7/2010 02:39
Click to rate (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#) Rating 165
Report abuse (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/reportAbuseInComment.html?articleId=1295629&commentId=24789251)
Read more: [URL]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1295629/Britain-pays-Calais-migrants-3-500-home--here.html#ixzz0u2t5UJjf