'Big increase' in payments for migrants to leave UK

Shabana Mahmood said she was considering “a big increase” in payments for migrants to return voluntarily to their home countries, insisting that the policy represented “value for money”.

- MILLIE COOKE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

The home secretary said she had directed officials to “pilot a small programme” of increased payments, “just to see how it changes behaviour”, as part of a wider overhaul of the asylum system.

The UK currently offers payments of up to £3,000 to some people who have no right to remain in the country and who agree to return home.

Announcing sweeping reforms to the asylum system yesterday, Ms Mahmood confirmed that the offer of financial packages to aid voluntary returns would continue - but has since said the figures involved could actually increase.

“I haven’t alighted on the full sums involved yet, but I am willing to consider a big increase on what we currently pay,” she told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast. “I know it sticks in the craw of many people and they don’t like it, but it is value for money, it does work, and a voluntary return is often the very best way to get people to return to their home country as quickly as possible.”