Asylum seekers offered cash to go back home

By Tererai Karimakwenda
16 January 2006

The UK Immigration department has embarked on a new campaign to reduce the numbers of asylum cases and perhaps save on the costs of detaining and deporting failed cases. The latest news is that the Home Office is offering failed asylum seekers money to drop their cases. According to reports, 54,000 letters went out to failed asylum seekers offering them £3000 each to leave the UK. The scheme was formally announced in a written Ministerial Statement by the Immigration minister Tony McNulty on Thursday, 12th January 2006. Claimants who applied before 31st December 2005 have 6 months to withdraw their asylum claims or withdraw their appeal.

Sarah Harland, an activist dealing with Zimbabwean refugees at the Zimbabwe Association, said the offer is directed at a number of different nationalities. She said genuine asylum seekers who already suffered torture or abuse in Zimbabwe might not be persuaded by this because no amount of money can guarantee safety. But those who came to the UK for less serious reasons might think of accepting the offer. Harland believes since the deadline to decide is in May, Zimbabweans may want to wait in case the situation stabilizes by then. Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are not to be removed by force due a tribunal ruling last October that concluded that returnees were not safe.

It is a known fact that in some countries, failed asylum seekers are put in prison on return and are released only if they pay a bribes. Public announcements of the money offer also serve to inform the perpetrators that returnees can afford to pay for their freedom. The Home Office described the money as 'increased reintegration assistance' meant to help returnees to resettle in their country of origin. The new term 'Incentivising' has even been coined for this new campaign.

Critics say the offer is misguided and dangerous. The National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns ( NCADC) is reported to have said a sylum seekers from such places as DR Congo, Somalia and Uganda who are living in hardship and destitution in the UK, may see this 'incentive' as an 'Immediate' way out of their suffering. They believe it would be far better if the Home Office spent the proposed £6.2 million for the scheme in setting