People who have claimed asylum could now be entitled to £3,000 to return to their country of origin. The Home Office has announcing a six-month pilot in which they will be adding an enhanced assistance package to all returns under the Voluntary Assisted Return & Reintegration Programme (VARRP) run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
This package is worth an additional £2000 per person on top of the £1000 worth of reintegration assistance currently available. Individuals who are eligible under the pilot scheme will receive £500 as a relocation grant and the remaining amount will be given in the context of individually tailored and agreed reintegration plans. With regards to Iraq, the same conditions will apply as for all other nationalities.
Tony McNulty, the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality said in a written statement to the House of Commons:
"VARRP provides all returnees with reintegration assistance to the value of £1,000. This assistance is provided in kind. This means that returnees are not provided with cash grants but are given help with starting up a small business, vocational training or education. All those who leave the UK under this scheme will be offered an additional £2,000 which they can choose to take as either additional re-integration assistance or cash grants."
IOM confirmed that recipients of the enhanced package will receive £500 in cash at the airport as a relocation grant but any further cash would be phased over a period of a year. However, the amount of cash an individual received would be decided following between individual returnees and IOM field officers. The IOM said that "Under no circumstances will a cash lump sum be given."
The Refugee Council broadly welcomed these plans. Some people will benefit from the enhanced package of assistance and be enabled to return home safely to rebuild their lives. However, the Refugee Council has also indicated that it is concerned to ensure that all returns are safe and sustainable, people with protection needs are not encouraged to return and people are not coerced into returning under schemes that are described as ’voluntary’. The Chief Executive, Maeve Sherlock, said:
"This is a welcome move by the government. It will be cheaper, more humane and more efficient. Enabling people to return home by giving them financial help to rebuild their lives has to be better than enforced removals that often involve men, women and children being snatched without warning, locked in detention centres and then flown out in handcuffs."
" However, at the moment too many vulnerable people at the end of the asylum process are left destitute and homeless and so are under pressure to go home when it isn’t safe. It is important that voluntary return programmes are just that - voluntary. That said, we are pleased the government has listened to us and taken steps to make voluntary return a more sustainable option."
The National Coalition Of Anti-Deportation Campaigns has raised concerns about the scheme. A spokesperson for its North East and Scotland office said "living in hardship and destitution in the UK at the moment may see this ’incentive’ as an ’immediate’ way out of their suffering".
The package will be available to those who agree to leave the UK between 1 January and 30 June 2006 but will not be available to those who have made an application for asylum after 31 December 2005. The Home Office anticipate that the scheme could increase the number of predicted returns from about 1,950 to over 3,000 for the six-month period. According to the IOM, the Home Office has already written to around 50,000 asylum seekers and they have already started to respond with enquiries to IOM.
The government project that the scheme which costs £3,000 per person will save money in the long term as average cost of a forced deportation is around £11,000 per person.
The pilot scheme will also be evaluated to see if an increased reintegration assistance gives a further incentive to rejected asylum seekers to return and whether it results in asylum seekers withdrawing any outstanding asylum applications or appeals.
