Bright Blue responds to the Government’s announcement of a pilot scheme to increase financial incentives for failed asylum seekers to return home voluntarily, as called for in Bright Blue’s 2025 report, A positive contribution: An honest and detailed plan to improve our immigration system.
Dr Will Prescott, Head of Research at Bright Blue, commented:
“Few issues in British politics generate more public frustration than successive governments’ seeming inability to control irregular migration and remove failed asylum seekers from the UK.
Paying individual failed asylum seekers up to £10,000, or families up to £40,000, to leave may seem counterintuitive. Yet when compared to the substantial financial and political cost of housing such people, potentially for years at a time, it is a relatively small price to pay.
If we are serious about restoring public confidence in our immigration system, we must take a pragmatic approach to reducing the numbers in asylum accommodation.”
Bright Blue had previously called for an increase in the £3,000 payment currently to failed asylum seekers as an incentive to return home voluntarily.
Photo credits: Jannik
