ASYLUM SEEKERS

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Failed asylum seekers are drawing benefits to which they are not entitled by claiming that they are about to return home, only to continue to live in Britain for years. Asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected, and whose appeal rights have been used up, are given 21 days' grace before being stripped of benefit entitlements and told to leave the country. However, if they agree to go home via the Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme, they become eligible for "Section Four support", an emergency handout consisting of free food vouchers worth £35 a week, plus free accommodation, with council tax and utility bills paid, worth about £100 a week. Most receive the benefit for two or three weeks until flights home have been arranged by the International Organisation for Migration, the agency that runs the assisted return scheme on behalf of the Home Office. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Dec/07)

The Home Office spent £28m on an asylum detention centre it never built. Ministers wanted to build the centre near Bicester, Oxfordshire, but dropped plans in 2005 after they were told such holding centres were not viable. The National Audit Office said the Home Office could have foreseen problems, and saved money, if it had worked in a "more co-ordinated and joined-up way". The NAO said that the Home Office had also signed a £60m contract with Global Solutions Limited to build the centre, but then had to pay it £8m compensation when the scheme was abandoned. In all, £33m was spent on the proposed national network of centres that were never built. (Source: BBC News, Nov/07)

Failed asylum seekers are to be offered up to £4,000 to go home voluntarily. The support packages, which can include help towards private school fees, are intended to stop a slump in the number of bogus refugees being removed from the country. The deal includes money for housing, childcare fees and even help setting up a business. There is also a cash payment of £500 at the airport. It is estimated that only 7% of British children attend a fee-paying school and yet the government is prepared to pay for FAILED asylum seekers!

The total budget for the scheme, paid for by the taxpayer, is £22million a year. The Home Office has been offering £1,500 support packages to failed refugees since 2002 but the number taking the money is falling. Last year, 5,327 accepted the payment and went home voluntarily but in the first half of this year the number fell to 1,883. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne defended the support packages, saying they were cheaper than deportation. He said, "We will not hesitate to use enforced returns, but when we can spare British taxpayers the £11,000 these each cost, we will."

A Home Office spokesman said, "The Government wants people who are in the UK illegally to leave voluntarily and, in co-operation with the International Organisation for Migration, it operates the Assisted Voluntary Return schemes to help them to do so. This approach represents good value for money against the cost of enforced returns. This new package addresses the fact that reintegration needs for returnees are often very different and so there is no fixed value of the package. The new approach may well result in additional savings that would not have been possible under a fixed value package." (Source: Daily Mail, Oct/07)

An asylum seeker who sexually assaulted an elderly man, claimed his misunderstanding of the law was down to "cultural differences". Yasir Abdullah, of no fixed abode, was jailed for five months, of which he will serve 20 days, after pleading guilty to sexually touching the pensioner outside Blue Arrow employment agency on Ormskirk Street, Preston. Ivan Dickinson, defending, told Preston magistrates Abdullah, from Gaza, genuinely believed his behaviour when he groped the man's private parts, was not illegal. He said, "There is a divide of culture between Arab and English nations. It is clear he genuinely believed his behaviour was not criminally wrong"

Abdullah listened from the dock via an Arabic interpreter as the court watched CCTV footage of the incident. The court heard the victim, a retired 63-year-old, had caught a train to Preston with the intention of catching a connection but decided to go for a drink in the city instead. Prosecuting, Suzie Privett, said, "In the early hours the aggrieved decided to go home and started to walk to the bus station. He had consumed around 12 pints of bitter and acknowledges he was drunk." Abdullah, who arrived in Britain this year, is seeking asylum after his mother was killed and father paralysed in the conflict. (Source: Lep, Sep/07)

The Diana Memorial Fund is planning to mark the 10th anniversary of the princess’s death by spending £10m of its remaining funds on a campaign to promote the rights of asylum seekers and refugees. The charity, which received more than £20m in donations from the public, will also demand an end to the government’s policy of imprisoning child deportees.

A campaign will be launched next month after it is agreed by the charity’s board and will lobby for the rights of asylum seekers up to the age of 25. It is expected to finance charities which provide education, housing and healthcare for asylum seekers and will sponsor next summer’s Refugee Week.

It is also considering paying lawyers to fight Home Office deportation orders targeted at removing young asylum seekers from Britain. The fund’s directors want the campaign to transform public antipathy towards asylum seekers and refugees in the way that Diana changed the image of Aids sufferers by embracing them and successfully campaigned for an international ban on landmines. (Source: Times Online, Aug/07)

This Government and the politically correct establishment have created a ludicrous situation where living in harmony with ethnic minorities will become an impossibility. In the first instance, there are far too many refugees still being allowed into this already overpopulated island.

They are given quality housing, health and education facilities, plus generous benefits, while we English citizens, born and bred here, have to suffer continuing deterioration of the National Health Service, education, care for the elderly and the breakdown of public services, thus causing anger and resentment regarding the preferential treatment of asylum seekers.

The idea of Britain being a multi-cultural society has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identitity. As Britons, we have our own culture, society, language and lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggle, trials and victories by many men and women who have sought freedom. We speak English, not Urdu, Hindu, Arabic, Chinese or any other language, and we really do not care how they did things where they came from.

We are happy with our culture and we have no desire to change to suit the ethnic minorities. This is our country and our laws give every citizen the right to express his opinion. We were never consulted or given that right on whether or not we wished to integrate, but I have no doubt that the results of the next election will reflect those views. Mrs J Capenerhurst

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