Home Office: Offering failed asylum claim families £40,000 is not a pull factor

A scheme offering the families of failed asylum seekers up to £40,000 to leave the UK will not be a “pull factor”, the Home Office has insisted.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said a small number of failed asylum seekers will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain.

The scheme is expected to target about 150 families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation.

Those who refuse the offer will be forcibly removed, Ms Mahmood said.

The pilot, announced on Thursday, has been criticised by the Conservatives and Reform, who say it will incentivise illegal immigration.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “This is an insult to the British taxpayer. Shabana Mahmood has to resort to paying illegal immigrants to leave because she has utterly failed to forcibly remove them.

“Offering £40,000 to failed asylum seekers to leave the country will only reward and incentivise illegal immigration.”

Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said: “Unbelievably, Labour is increasing the incentive, by offering a staggering £40,000 package to illegals to leave voluntarily.

“That’s more than the median salary in Britain. As a prize for breaking in illegally. It’s a disgrace.”

Reform has previously said illegal migrants would be offered a “financial incentive to self-deport” during a six-month window if it was in government.

The Home Secretary unveiled the scheme as she argued Labour should not be tempted to become “more Green” or “more Reform” on its migration policy in a speech at the centre-left think tank Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Hitting back at suggestions the plan will attract more migrants to the UK, a Home Office spokesperson said: “This is not a pull factor.

“Illegal migrants pay smugglers tens of thousands of pounds to get to Britain.

“If those families offered the time-limited payment refuse, we will forcibly remove them.”

The Home Office estimates it could save £20 million for the taxpayer.

A source said: “Our intelligence shows people smugglers charge between £15,000 and £35,000 per illegal migrant.

“As a result, the pilot to pay them to leave cannot act as a pull factor because it costs more to get here in the first place. If they do not take this offer, the family will be forcibly removed.”

The Home Secretary faces a backbench revolt over her shake-up of the asylum system, which includes plans for people granted asylum in the UK having their refugee status made temporary and subject to review every 30 months.

Ms Mahmood said her party’s identity is being “bitterly” contested, but insisted that Labour values are at the heart of her “firm but fair” migration reforms.

The policy shift comes after she visited Denmark, where a social democratic-led government has drastically reduced the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and removed 95% of rejected asylum seekers.

She has made little secret of her admiration for the approach.

Ms Mahmood told the event the Government would seek to echo reforms introduced in Denmark and that her reforms offer “a compassionate but controlled asylum system. Firm, but fair”.

She said: “This Government will now pilot a similar model for families who are failed asylum seekers, a small number of whom will now be offered an increased incentive payment of £10,000 per person and up to a maximum of £40,000 per family.”

These incentives will bring a “significant saving” to the taxpayer if they prove effective, she outlined, adding: “Where a voluntary removal is refused, we will escalate to an enforced removal for those who can be returned to their safe home country.

“We are now consulting on precisely how the removal of families with children must take place in a way that is humane and effective. For too long, families who have failed their claims have known that we are not enforcing our rules, which created a perverse incentive to make a Channel crossing with children in a small boat it.”

Charities have expressed deep concern about Ms Mahmood’s plans.

Mubeen Bhutta, of British Red Cross, said: “This is a deeply worrying time for refugees and people seeking asylum.

“There is little evidence to suggest that making life harder puts people off coming to the UK, when they have been forced to flee their homes. In fact, evidence from where similar changes have been implemented shows it leads to real human suffering and holds back integration in communities.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski hit out at the Home Secretary after she said he “should not be on the beaches of France encouraging people to make a perilous crossing”.

Mr Polanski said it was the latest in a “string of lies” by the Government.

In a letter to the Home Secretary, he said: “I was there to see at first hand the suffering your Government and successive governments have done in demonising migrants in a pathetic bid to pander to the base instincts of Reform and the flawed strategy of Morgan McSweeney.

“I was there to witness the brutality of families living in tents in freezing temperatures. I filled water tanks and picked up litter.”