ANOTHER CRACKDOWN ON ASYLUM SEEKERS

Thousands of failed asylum seekers are being paid up to £3,500 taxpayers' money to start their own businesses when they are sent home. They are given the huge hand-outs with no questions asked and the government has absolutely no way of knowing what they do with our money. In 2006 alone nearly 5,000 were sent packing with a wad of cash. If a whole family is kicked out EVERY member can claim the state grant, meaning they walk away with a fortune.

The great giveaway is part of the government's Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme, for asylum seekers who agree to return to their home countries. The money is also freely dished out to be spent on education, training or housing. Home Office Minister Liam Byrne said three-fifths of asylum-seekers claim the hand-outs, with 87% saying they want to start their own business but he admits there are no checks to verify that the ventures are genuine.

Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said, "It is one thing paying these people's air fares to go home but it is quite another to give them money to start a business. It is absurd to think we have an obligation to these people once they have left the country. Most people will think if we don't owe them a living while they are in Britain, we certainly don't owe them a living when they go home." (Source: News of the World, Jul/07)

David Blunkett said that asylum seekers could go to prison for up to two years if they destroy their passports on the way to Britain. Announcing a range of new measures designed to toughen the asylum system, he said that claiming refugee status will be made more difficult if a claimant cannot come up with a good reason for having no travel documents.

He also unveiled plans to crack down on "unscrupulous and unqualified" legal advisers in Britain who encourage asylum seekers to make unwarranted appeals. The Immigration Services Commissioner (ISC) will get new powers to raid solicitors' offices to seize documents and investigate these "dubious" advisers, he said.

The watchdog would also be able to enter unqualified advisers' homes. The announcement came just days after Mr Blunkett announced a huge asylum amnesty, allowing up to 50,000 asylum seekers to stay in Britain to save cash on support payments and legal aid. Ministers claimed that the package was the final phase of reforms to build on the Government's asylum crackdown, which has halved the number of asylum applications.

Failing to co-operate with immigration officers who are trying to get new travel documents for failed asylum seekers will also be made a criminal offence, with a maximum two years' imprisonment. People traffickers often advise would-be asylum seekers to destroy passports so they can claim a false nationality and generally slow down the application process.

Councillor Maurice Burgess is calling on the Government for a change in the law to allow failed asylum seekers to work while waiting to be deported. Currently, failed asylum seekers who are not subject to the appeal process are stripped of state support, usually provided by the National Asylum Support Service, and are not entitled to legally work in the United Kingdom. Mr Burgess feels this is "promoting a culture of illegal work with poor pay and an increase in abuse of drugs, alcohol and related crime". Figures are not available for the number of failed asylum seekers living in Derby, but Mr Burgess claims that, from talks with community representatives, there could be as many as 300, and up to 1,200 people seeking asylum in Derby.

It can take up to a year to deport a person if their application for asylum is rejected. In a letter to Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Mr Burgess, as chairman of the council's Minority Ethnic Communities Advisory Committee, expresses his concerns about "the existing and growing problem in Derby of failed asylum seekers." Mr Burgess said, "These people are left destitute, with many people living on the floors of other people's homes, and basically the community are supporting these people. This leads to overcrowding, people with no income and people working illegally. We're not encouraging new asylum seekers to come to Derby, we're not saying rejection of asylum seekers is wrong, but it is inhumane to leave people in this limbo."

A spokesman for the Derby branch of Refugee Action, a national UK charity that helps refugees build new lives, said the charity greatly supported Mr Burgess' letter. He said, "This is very progressive and we welcome the fact that Derby City Council are at the cutting edge of thinking in this case. We're very concerned at the number of asylum seekers being left homeless with no means of support. We're asking for people to have a means to support themselves and to have the means to live with dignity." A spokesman for the Home Office said that when a failed asylum seeker is unable to return immediately to their country of origin for logistical reasons, they may be eligible to receive accommodation and/or a subsistence cash allowance.

The only figures available from the Home Office show 60 new failed asylum seekers nationally applied for this subsistence-only support from July to September 2004. The spokesman added, "Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 2004, failed asylum seekers who cannot return home immediately will undertake community activities in return for support. We are in the process of establishing a pilot project for this." (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)

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