The UK has paid migrants £53m to leave the country over the past four years, The Independent can reveal.
Under a voluntary return scheme run by the government, migrants can receive up to £3,000 as an incentive to return to their home country, as part of what are known as “assisted returns”. They also have their flights paid for as part of the deal.
Assisted returns have been on the rise in recent years, with 6,799 people travelling home this way in 2024 compared to 2,179 people in 2022. Between 2021 and 2024, 13,637 people have taken an assisted return, according to Home Office data.
In the UK, a person can qualify for this money if they are returning to a developing country, are a failed asylum seeker, are a confirmed victim of modern slavery, are sleeping rough or have a medical condition.
In 2024, over half of the foreign nationals who accepted assisted returns were from Brazil, with 3,573 taking up the offer. The second highest nationality was India, with 915 people returning in 2024, and then 271 going back to Honduras.
The Home Office insists the voluntary return scheme is a “much more cost-effective alternative for the taxpayer” than paying for accommodation and support for those facing deportation from the UK.
Charity Asylum Matters also said a properly-run system can be much cheaper than the “expensive cruelty of forced removals”, and can also result in “immeasurably better outcomes” for the asylum seekers.
But it called for bespoke support for migrants, with independent bodies funded to provide advice and tailored help to those returning overseas. In 2015, the government cancelled funding for independent advice for those considering return.
Asylum Matters executive director Louise Calvey told The Independent: “When a supportive, dignified system is provably more cost-effective than the alternative, it becomes clear we need to have honest conversations about the amount of money we’re prepared to waste on cruelty and hostility.
“Such a system shouldn’t just mean handing someone a plane ticket and a cash card. Without bespoke support, rooted in non-governmental bodies able to give independent advice and tailored help, both in the UK and in the country of return, people are effectively abandoned back into the difficult circumstances they had fled.”
Sir Keir Starmer boasted in March that migrant returns had reached the highest rate in eight years, under Labour. He claimed to have “removed more than 24,000 people with no right to be here”, but was criticised for not making clear that this included people who had left the UK voluntarily.
Invoices analysed by government procurement experts Tussell.com show the Home Office paid Prepaid Payment Solutions Ltd £53,894,226 from 2021 to February 2025 for voluntary assisted returns.
Prepaid Payment Solutions Ltd offer “versatile payment solutions including virtual and physical cards … for businesses and government entities”.
Under the scheme, up to £3,000 is provided as a single payment on a card, which can only be used in the country of return, according to advice from the No Recourse to Public Funds network.
Similar schemes are in place in EU countries. In Italy, migrants are offered €615 before their departure or immediately on arrival in the country of origin, and then given €2,000 plus €1,000 for each family member.
Families with a child under 18 also qualify for support of up to £3,000. If someone accepts an offer, they will then be subject to a “re-entry ban”, which is meant to stop them returning to the UK for a specific time period.
How long the ban is depends on the person’s immigration record and on how much support they had from the Home Office when they left.
Meanwhile, Dolores Modern, from the Latin American Women’s Rights Service, said they have heard about Brazilian community Facebook groups sharing information about voluntary returns.
Ms Modern said that her organisation doesn’t encourage voluntary returns because it is hard for people to fully consent to the process. She said: “You can never be sure that there is real informed consent. Sometimes they might be feeling pressured.
“Many Brazilians come here not knowing that they are not allowed to work, and learning that once they are here. If they do get in an exploitative work situation, their visa often runs out when they are in that exploitation and they don’t know who to turn to, they don’t know that they can go to the police. They find themselves trapped, and once they are out, they might consider voluntary return.
“People also come here escaping violence and then once they are here they find their situation very difficult, and they might consider returning as one of their options.
“We had one recent case of a woman who was in the domestic servitude of another woman, she was brought to the UK specifically from Brazil for that job. She found herself in a really precarious and exploitative situation, and when she managed to escape that situation she knew she wanted to go back to Brazil. The consulate spoke to her about voluntary return, and she went back.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Since coming to office, this government has taken immediate action to ensure immigration rules are respected and enforced. We have returned nearly 30,000 failed asylum seekers, foreign criminals and other immigration offenders with no right to be in the UK, a 12 per cent increase compared to the same period 12 months ago.
“Under successive governments, the facilitation of voluntary returns has been considered a much more cost-effective alternative for the taxpayer than paying for the accommodation and support of individuals awaiting enforced deportation from the UK. To put this total in perspective, around £54m was being spent every six days on asylum hotels alone under the previous administration, at the peak of their use in autumn 2023.”
