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Ieyasu Tokugawa
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£1,500 bribes to send foreign inmates home: Tories adopt policy they called 'outrageous'
By James Slack and Jack Doyle
Last updated at 8:05 AM on 10th November 2010
Foreign prisoners will be paid up to £1,500 for returning home (posed by model)
Foreign rapists and muggers are being offered £1,500 each in cash if they agree to go home part of the way through their sentences. When they leave they receive a cash card loaded with £500. A further £1,000 of British taxpayers’ cash will be payable within the first three months of their arrival home.
The card will be programmed to work in ATM machines around the world. Details of the controversial ‘bribes’ emerged after David Cameron promised to get foreign convicts go home rather than clog Britain’s jails. The payment is three times the amount of cash that was offered by Labour, which had a similar scheme to send foreign convicts home.
The offer is even available to criminals who have served their entire sentence in Britain – at a cost of £45,000 a year. They will get a cash payment of £750. In opposition, the Tories said the scheme was ‘simply outrageous’. Dominic Grieve, then Conservative justice spokesman, said: ‘The lesson is clear: under Labour, crime pays and the taxpayer foots the bill.’
Now the Coalition says the scheme will save money, because it is cheaper than forcibly removing foreign criminals or leaving them in jail. Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘Every day that a foreign national is held in prison costs the taxpayer money – that is why I want to see them removed from the UK at the earliest opportunity.
'The facilitated returns scheme is a practical solution that not only saves the taxpayer money in the long run, but also means foreign criminals are removed as soon as possible denying them the opportunity to re-offend or drag out the removal process with frivolous appeals.’
Once the criminals return home they have to make a claim that they need cash for rent, private healthcare or help to establish a business before they can obtain the £1,000. Officials have struggled for years to deport foreign convicts and more than 11,000 are currently taking up space in Britain’s packed jails.
On Monday, the Daily Mail revealed how the Prime Minister had decided to spearhead a campaign for them to serve their sentences back home. He plans to tear up prisoner transfer agreements that mean convicts cannot be returned home without their consent.
Yesterday, he held what were described as ‘positive’ talks in Beijing about returning the 364 Chinese inmates in UK jails. The Government has introduced the enhanced payments as part of the drive to return foreign convicts to their own countries.
When Labour implemented the idea, it offered only £500 in cash, backed by varying amounts of ‘support in kind’. This could have included advice on setting up a business. At one stage, the total value of the package was £5,000.
But the offer of in-kind support did not prove tempting to many criminals. Instead, they used human rights laws to argue that – after their release – they should be allowed to remain in Britain permanently. Last year, 5,535 foreign prisoners were deported, of whom 30 per cent received financial incentives.
Yesterday Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I think most people will think this obscene – people who should be kicked out of the country with nothing being asked to leave the country with a bribe. ‘It’s no wonder our prisons are so full with foreign criminals if they know they are going to get £1,500 when they leave.’
