British taxpayers have now spent more than £35 million funding departure payments for over 20,000 migrants through the government’s assisted returns programme, a fresh investigation has revealed.
Each individual receives up to £3,000 in travel and living costs to accept the offer to leave.
Brazilians make up the largest group by a wide margin, according to the data, with 8,901 nationals from the South American country accepting the offer to leave over a two-year period.
The Voluntary Returns Service, which handles cases involving visa overstayers, rejected asylum claimants and others lacking permission to remain, officially recorded expenditure of £35million between July 2024 and March this year, according to The Sun.
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However, insiders believe the figure has since surpassed £40 million.
The average payout per person is said to stand at £1,964.
India was the second most common nationality, with 3,629 people taking a funded flight home, followed by 746 Colombians and 468 Hondurans, the data showed.
Yet migrants from the five countries most heavily represented in Channel small boat crossings are said to have shown almost no interest in the scheme.
A mere 77 Iranians reportedly accepted the payment, along with 14 Afghans, 11 Sudanese, seven Eritreans, and three Somalis.
Those arriving by dinghy across the English Channel, the group at the heart of the political debate, are overwhelmingly declining the financial incentive to leave voluntarily.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp attacked Labour’s strategy, accusing the government of throwing money at the problem rather than tackling its root causes.
He said: “Labour are paying illegal immigrants to leave instead of stopping them arriving in the first place. They have found an expensive way to avoid the actual problem.”
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He pointed out that “paying off thousands of Brazilians does nothing about the boats crossing the Channel,” adding that dinghy arrivals were “being returned at a rate of just seven per cent.”
Mr Philp argued the Conservatives’ Borders plan would enable forced deportation of all illegal immigrants, eliminating the need for financial inducements entirely.
The costs could escalate significantly following Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s decision to launch a pilot programme offering failed asylum seekers and their families as much as £40,000 to leave the country.
Recipients have just one week to accept the one-off offer, which also includes flights home.
Payments are expected to be loaded onto pre-paid debit cards after departure.
The Home Office has defended the approach, noting that a single forced removal costs roughly £48,000 and requires border agents to escort the migrant throughout the journey.
Ministers also argue that accommodating a family of three in asylum housing runs to approximately £158,000 annually.
A Home Office spokeswoman told GB News: “Encouraging voluntary returns is vastly better value than paying for hotels or forced returns, saving taxpayers millions.
“Under this government, returns of those with no right to be in the UK are up by more than 50 per cent, and close to 65 per cent for small boat arrivals.”
The assisted returns scheme is separate from the facilitated returns scheme, which deports foreign criminals directly from jail.
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