Failed Asylum Seekers Paid To Leave UK

Thousands of failed asylum seekers have been flown out of Britain and set up in business back home in a £36 million taxpayer-funded scheme.

The unwanted foreigners, who had no legal right to remain, were given free flights, handed £1,000 in cash at the airport, then paid a further £3,000 to start enterprises in their homelands.

More than 23,000 migrants have taken advantage of the scheme. Their UK-funded businesses range from market stalls to hotels and clothes factories, in countries as far-flung as South Africa, China and Colombia.

Ministers say that paying failed asylum seekers to leave is cheaper than forcibly deporting them, saving money for taxpayers. However, the Tories last night condemned the payouts as "bribes".

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "Now the price of the Government's failure to secure our borders is all too clear. Given their inability to deport illegal immigrants, they have had to resort to bribing them to leave - with the taxpayer picking up the bill."

Details of the scheme are shown in documents from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM London), the Geneva-based agency that administers the voluntary repatriation scheme on Britain's behalf.….

Locking up foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers who should have been deported costs £43,435 a year for each one – making it cheaper to send them on a luxury world cruise.

The bill for holding the 2,550 foreign nationals in immigration centres while they fight their removal is £110million.

The taxpayer would save £9,125 a year for each of them if they were sent on a 21-country cruise on the P&O liner Oriana.

The £119-a-day cost of holding a detainee emerged in a written reply to Tory MP Damian Green. It compares to £90 for a prison cell or £97 a day to sail around the world on the Oriana.

Removal centres cost so much to run because they must follow rules to protect the 'dignity' of failed asylum seekers.

But the network of centres is increasingly used to house foreign criminals who have been freed but are fighting removal.

The centres must provide the detainees with activities and TVs and healthcare provision should be 'at least' NHS standard. Some are also often visited by dentists.

Immigration spokesman Mr Damian Green said: 'This is one more price we pay for the chaos and delays in the immigration system.

Thousands of people locked up for months in detention centres, including foreign prisoners the Government can't deport, are costing the taxpayer more than £100million...............

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said he had secured an extra £1.2 billion for a building programme which will see the number of prison places in England and Wales increase to 96,000 by 2014.

One of the new prisons - dubbed "Titan" jails by Mr Straw, and 1,000 beds larger than Britain's current largest - will be in service by 2012, with a further two expected to be built by 2014.

The plan was announced as part of a major review of the prison system, which is struggling with record levels and severe overcrowding.

Author of the programme - Government trouble-shooter Lord Carter of Coles - recommended ministers should use an existing process to force through planning permission for the Titan jails as quickly as possible............

Home Office Liam Byrne said: 'We will not hesitate to detain illegal immigrants as part of our work to remove them from Britain.

To keep the public safe we will invest in the level of security that is right. This simply doesn't come free.'

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will announce today that skilled migrants must obtain a certificate in English from next year before they can enter Britain.............