Cost of Labour’s migrant return scheme revealed
LABOUR’s flagship “one in, one out” deal is costing an eye-watering £56,000 for every small boat arrival sent back to France, the Home Secretary has admitted, reports BritPanorama.
Shabana Mahmood revealed the hefty price tag as she was grilled by MPs over whether the scheme is delivering value for taxpayers. More than 1,400 migrants have been returned across the Channel, but Ms Mahmood conceded the numbers remain “relatively small.”
Asked about the costs for each return, she stated, “I think it’s per person for the numbers that have been returned so far, it’s about £56,000.” She later defended this expenditure, asserting it was “still cheaper, or just about the same as supporting someone in a hotel for a year.”
Under the deal, Britain sends small boat migrants back to France in exchange for taking asylum seekers through a legal route. The pilot has already been extended once and is due to run into October, with its long-term future still up in the air. France advocates for the bilateral arrangement to eventually transition into a wider EU-UK returns deal.
Ms Mahmood pushed back against suggestions that an EU-wide system would be a “silver bullet” for the Channel crisis, stating that the one-in-one-out scheme had already returned more migrants than Britain managed under the EU’s old Dublin arrangements. She emphasized, “It is a real mistake to think that that pact is the future. And if we were in that, this problem would go away because I promise you, it would not.”
Nonetheless, the Home Secretary admitted that the Government’s own scheme had struggled to process large numbers of migrants, remarking, “It’s not been without its challenges. Obviously, the numbers are still relatively small.” Operational difficulties have hindered large-scale removals due to constraints in detention space faced by both Britain and France.
Additionally, Ms Mahmood noted that only “relatively small numbers” of failed asylum-seeking families have taken up a separate pilot offering them up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave Britain. She stated, “If you’re a failed asylum-seeking family, what you’re trading off is an offer of £40,000… versus, you know, access to free healthcare and education for your children.”
Britain is also investing £662 million to France over three years to address Channel crossings. Ms Mahmood acknowledged it was “a lot of money” and “more than we were paying before,” but maintained that the new deal allows resources to be targeted at measures that yield results.
In summary, the current migration strategy illustrates a complex interplay of costs, challenges, and political dynamics, raising essential questions about efficiency and effectiveness in addressing illegal crossings and asylum processes.
