I’m an asylum seeker. I turned down £3,000 from the Home Office to leave the UK - The i Paper

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Asylum seekers are willing to turn down the Home Office’s offer of money to leave the country, the Government has been warned.

Families in hotels whose asylum claims have been rejected have been presented with an offer of up to £40,000 if they depart the UK.

The pilot project builds upon an existing scheme that offers £3,000 to each migrant willing to voluntarily return to their home country.

But one asylum seeker from South America told The i Paper that he turned down money and instead intends to appeal the decision and remain in Britain.

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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the increased “incentive payment” in March, as part of her plans to cut migrant numbers, in large part due to the spiralling cost of housing asylum seekers.

Families whose asylum claim has been denied will be offered £10,000 per person – up to a maximum of £40,000 – to leave the country voluntarily.

The pilot targeted about 150 families living in taxpayer-funded hotels, who were given a seven-day deadline to take up the offer. Those who refused the offer risked forcible removal.

The Government already has a long-standing voluntary returns service that offers £3,000 to asylum seekers and other vulnerable migrants to go back to their home country.

‘An abuse of the asylum process’

Antonio*, an asylum seeker who has been in hotel accommodation for the past 18 months, told The i Paper that he had turned down this offer earlier this year.

In his fifties, he said it was not safe for him to return to his home country in South America. He described the offer as a “bribe” and said it was “absolutely insulting.”

Antonio remains determined to try to make the Government see the merit of his own claim after gathering more evidence for an appeal.

“Paying people to leave hasn’t ever been part of the asylum process,” he said. “The reason is that the country [the UK] is not doing so well economically, and feels under pressure.

“But international asylum law should be permanent. It is the wrong approach to use money to meddle in processes that are about trying to protect people.”

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants to speed up departures (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Antonio said some asylum seekers may be desperate enough to accept money to leave Britain. But he also believes others, like him, will not be tempted – even by £10,000 each.

“There are people who feel lonely and isolated and homesick,” he said. “They are living with uncertainty.

“So some people, depending on the level of risk they feel they face in going back, may take the decision to take money and go back.”

He added: “Some people like me believe in the asylum process, and they cannot face the level of risk [in going back home]. It is more important to try to stay and make it work in the UK.”

Scheme will save taxpayers money, says Home Office

Official figures show that last year 10,260 people used the “assisted return” route, which includes the package of up to £3,000.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Government is under pressure to do more to close asylum hotels, amid ongoing protests outside the buildings in towns and cities across the UK.

Defending the pilot payment scheme, Mahmood said it can cost up to £158,000 a year to house a family of three in asylum accommodation. She said the scheme could save £20m if successful.

However, the idea of offering families £40,000 to leave the UK has faced intense criticism from opposition parties and refugee charities.

The Conservatives’ Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called the payments an “insult to the British taxpayer”. Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said it was “a prize for breaking in illegally”.

The Home Office has pointed to a similar scheme by the Danish government offering asylum seekers money to return to their home country.

However, Michelle Pace, of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford, said Denmark’s experience shows that money may be the crucial factor in going home for only “a small number of migrants”.

Pace previously told The i Paper: “Decisions about asylum and return are usually shaped by security, legal status, family ties, and long-term prospects, not simply by financial incentives.”

Families face choice between ‘insecurity or gambling with safety’

Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at Praxis, said “bribing” asylum seekers to leave the country was “a new low for this Government”.

She said the seven-day deadline for the families offered £10,000 each “creates intense pressure on families living in poverty and uncertainty”.

For some people it feels like being forced to choose between “insecurity in the UK, or gambling with safety back home”.

The i Paper understands that the seven-day deadline is to express initial interest in the scheme. The families were not made to give a final decision in that time.

The Home Office did not disclose how many people had accepted the offer so far when asked by The i Paper.

A spokesperson for the department said the scheme was aimed at speeding up departures, cutting legal delays and closing more asylum hotels.

They said the time-limited offer of £10,000 to eligible family members was “a fraction of the £158,000 a year cost of keeping them in the system”.

The Home Office spokesperson added: “We make no apology for saving taxpayers millions of pounds by removing individuals who have no legal right to remain in the United Kingdom, or who are seeking to leave voluntarily.”

*Name has been changed to protect anonymity