HOME SECRETARY Shabana Mahmood said she is open to “a big increase” in payments to failed asylum seekers to encourage voluntary returns, telling the BBC it can be “better value for money for the taxpayer” than allowing people to remain in the UK.
She defended plans to remove families who have been rejected for asylum, including those with children, as part of a wider overhaul of the asylum system announced in Parliament this week. Some Labour MPs and peers have criticised the proposals.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, Mahmood was asked whether using taxpayer money in this way was justified.
She said failed asylum seekers currently cost £30,000 per person each year, making payments “value for money” even if they rise above the current upper limit, understood to be £3,000.
Mahmood said officials had been asked to run a “small programme” offering higher payments “to see how that changes behaviour”.
On criticism from Labour peer Lord Dubs, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was “weaponising children”, Mahmood said: “I always listen carefully to what he says but on this occasion I do disagree.”
She said she “would never use children as a weapon” and cited concerns about incentives for families travelling on small boats.
Mahmood also addressed reports about asylum seekers being stripped of jewellery, saying items of sentimental value would not be taken.
But those with high-value assets “should make a contribution”.
She referred to a case of an asylum seeker receiving £800 a month who had bought an Audi, saying the policy aimed to align rules with those for British citizens.
