Labour has refused to reveal how many illegal migrant families have accepted £40,000 to leave Britain.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Thursday that asylum-seeking families would be offered a lump sum of £10,000 per head, for up to four people.While the Home Office revealed that 150 families were entitled to the cash – it remains unclear exactly how many families have taken the department up on the offer.The families were given a seven-day deadline to accept which has now expired.
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The Home Office refused to reveal how many people took the offer when probed last night.A spokesman for the department told the Mail: “We are not going to be giving a running commentary on the offers that have been made.”They added the deadline for applying is now Thursday, instead of the previously announced Wednesday.The offer is currently only offered to families whose home countries are considered safe, and have exhausted their appeals in the courts.The £10,000 per head sum is significantly larger sum than existing voluntary return schemes, which are capped at £3,000.Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the sum was a “insult to the British taxpayer”.Reform UK has also proposed voluntary return payments, but home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the £40,000 figure was “staggering” and a “prize for breaking in illegally”.If the scheme is successful, Home Office sources have suggested it could be expanded to a thousand more families.Officials have also suggested the sum could be increased or decreased depending on success of the pilot scheme.LATEST ON THE MIGRANT CRISIS:Arrest warrant issued for asylum seeker who fled court following lunch breakFighting to stop asylum seekers being housed in Bell Hotel cost taxpayers more than £500,000Mother of murdered Rhiannon Whyte accuses Keir Starmer of ignoring her – despite multiple pleasThe scheme is one of several measures to save money on Britain’s multi-billion-pound asylum spend.Supporting a family of asylum seekers currently costs an average of £158,000.Labour has argued paying migrants to return to their home countries saves money in the long term.Moving migrants from hotels to military bases has also been planned by the Home Office to save money.A plan to place Afghan refugees and their families in an unused RAF base in Norfolk was scrapped after protests from locals.But the Crowborough camp has moved in 27 asylum seekers, despite protests from locals, and is set to host more than 500.Migrants have crossed the Channel for seven consecutive days this week for the first time this year.Mr Philp described it as a “a week of shame for Labour”, with 1,200 migrants reaching British soil over the seven days.The Home Office later released a crowing statement reading: “The Daily Mail have been told that the deadline given to failed asylum seekers to take up the scheme has not been passed – but they strangely went ahead and published this story anyway.”Once the deadline has been passed, the Government will be fully transparent and published the results in full.”
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