Taxpayers fork out millions to send foreign criminals home

Figures revealed by the Home Office yesterday show that an annual bill of some £3.4million is being covered by British taxpayers in order to bribe rapists, murderers and other foreign criminals to return home.

Last year, one out of every four overseas offenders were sent home to their country of origin only after being given an offer a voluntary return package which is valued at £5,000. The result is that the number of criminals staying or holding out for the cash offer has skyrocketed by some 60 percent in the past year alone. It was also one year agao that Prime Minister Gordon Brown swore that foreign criminals found to be breaking UK law would be removed automatically.

Damian Green, opposition Immigration Minister, claimed that the latest revelations prove that the Labour government has effectively given up any hopes of deportation for criminals at the end of the sentence.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has labelled the news as ludicrous, with calls for immediate deportation for those found to be flouting UK laws with no financial benefits rather than spending millions in bribes.

In October 2006 the Home Office launched the Facilitated Returns Scheme which offers cash incentives to overseas prisoners that are approaching the end of their sentences. According to statistics some 1,350 criminals from overseas took up the offer of financial assistance at an average of £2,500, which ministers argue is actually saving taxpayers in the long term. The government estimates that it costs £100 per day to house a foreign criminal.