Home Office hands serious foreign criminals £2,000 each as they are deported

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been slammed after serious foreign criminals in UK prisons are being given £2,000 cash cards.

The Home Secretary said it is “doesn’t look good,” but defended her actions as despite this being taxpayers’ money, overall, it is the cheapest option.

There were 47 criminals, including murderers and sexual offenders are being deported back to Romania some of the way through their prison sentences.

The Home Secretary was asked about the cash cards, she said, “Out of context, it’s not great, it doesn’t look good.”

She told ITV, “A voluntary removal is actually cheaper for the British taxpayer. It has long been the case that we do offer financial packages as an incentive to people to drop their claims and drop the attempts they make to stay in our country, and to board a flight and leave.”

Mahmood said, “I will be ramping up the numbers and I hope to say more about that in the weeks to come.

“You start with a small first step and then you ramp up, which is exactly what we’re going to be doing.

“We have a clear agreement with the French, we will want to see those numbers increase…I’m not going to get ahead of operational decisions.

“I want us to get to a point where the numbers that are being removed are acting as a deterrent and stop people getting on the boats in the first place. We have proved it can work, we’ve got flights off the ground, more are going this week, and we will be looking to ramp up the numbers.”