Shabana Mahmood says scheme could increase the £3,000 cap currently in place and that payments are ‘good value for money’
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has said that she is considering a “big” increase in the amount the government pays to people refused asylum to encourage them to leave the country voluntarily.
The Home Office already gives people relatively small sums in these circumstances, as it did with Hadush Kebatu, the Epping sex offender recently returned to Ethiopia. He got £500 to help persuade him not to legally challenge his removal.
In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Politcal Thinking podcast, Mahmood said she wanted more voluntary returns and that higher payments might help to deliver this.
According to the BBC, she said looking after someone refused asylum cost about £30,000 per person. Currently the Home Office give people at most around £3,000 to leave.
