Shabana Mahmood accused of 'shocking secrecy' over scheme handing up to £40,000 to failed asylum seeker families

By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 23:18, 3 April 2026 | Updated: 23:18, 3 April 2026 Shabana Mahmood has refused to disclose how many failed asylum seekers families have accepted up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave Britain, one month after the controversial scheme was launched. The Conservatives accused the Home Secretary of ‘shocking secrecy’ over the programme. If any asylum seekers have turned down the cash offer it would be a devastating indictment of Britain’s broken asylum system. It would signal that migrants have calculated they will be better off remaining here indefinitely at the taxpayers’ expense. It would also open the prospect of Ms Mahmood increasing the cash offer to a much higher level in a bid to persuade the families to leave. Officials said when the scheme was launched that they would look at upping the financial incentive ‘depending on take-up’. Most failed asylum seeker families offered the cash are living in migrant hotels at an average cost of £158,000 a year per family. Migrants prepare to board a dinghy before attempting to sail into the English Channel on Wedesday this week off Gravelines, France. Five migrants were pulled from the water by rescuers and two men in their 40s died Home secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) has refused to disclose how many failed asylum seekers families have accepted up to £40,000 to voluntarily leave Britain, one month after the controversial scheme was launched Migrants were seen scrambling to board the dangerously overloaded dinghy Under Ms Mahmood’s scheme they will receive £10,000 per head up to a maximum of £40,000, plus air tickets home. The scheme was launched on March 5 and the deadline to accept the offer expired on March 12, with Ms Mahmood arguing the cash pay-outs would save money in the long run. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Taxpayers deserve full transparency – not shocking secrecy – when their money is being squandered in this way. ‘It is shameful that Shabana Mahmood is hiding the truth about her new scheme. ‘This raises the question that few, if any, asylum seekers have accepted this deal because it is far more profitable to remain in the UK long-term, receiving free housing, healthcare, schooling and free money via our absurdly generous benefits system. ‘This is likely to be yet another of the Home Secretary’s schemes to lie in tatters.’ He added: ‘If the Government had the strength to properly police our borders and deport illegal immigrants they would not have to offer huge piles of taxpayers’ money to induce them to leave. ‘Leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and modern slavery treaties would allow illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers to be quickly deported. Migrants waded chest-deep into the sea off Gravelines beach to board the overloaded dinghy bound for Britain on Wednesday, when a total of 325 people reached the UK by small boat Your browser does not support iframes. ‘Then these enormous and apparently ineffective bribes would no longer be necessary.’ Labour’s programme could be expanded to thousands more families if ministers deem it successful. It is significantly more generous than existing voluntary returns schemes, currently capped at £3,000. A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Taxpayers should not be footing the bill to accommodate failed asylum families in hotels. ‘Housing a single family in a hotel currently costs the Home Office up to £158,000 a year. ‘To speed up departures, cut legal delays and close more asylum hotels, we’re piloting a time-limited offer of £10,000 to eligible family members to voluntarily leave the country - a fraction of the cost of keeping them in the system.’ Officials said figures on the uptake would be published ‘in due course’, but did not say when. When the scheme was launched Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK which campaigns for tougher border controls, said giving such ‘eye-watering’ cash incentives was ‘absurd’ and ‘simply wrong’. Your browser does not support iframes. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the scheme offering failed asylum seeker families £10,000 a head - up to a maximum of £40,000 - if they agree to leave the UK voluntarily 'It is also unfair to people in this country who are struggling financially to see these very significant sums being handed out to people who have no right to be here,’ he added. There are currently thousands of failed asylum seeker families being supported by public funds, officials said, but the exact number is not known by the Home Office due to weaknesses in its data-gathering. But sources were able to confirm that 700 Albanian families who have exhausted their appeals process are still being supported by the public purse. Eligible families have had claims rejected by the Home Office and have then exhausted the appeals process in the courts. Plans to invite a group of male asylum seekers for a ‘training day’ to help them settle in Britain at a Sussex community centre during the school Easter holidays had to be abandoned after furious reaction from residents. Wilderness Wood, a holiday retreat and ‘community hub’ nestled among the ancient woodland of the Sussex High Weald, was forced to cancel the planned event after protests. The planned meeting which is just five miles from Crowborough, is thought to have been arranged by organisers who planned to invite small boat migrants to the forest. The aim was a trial in assisting newly arrived migrants with practical and ‘emotional’ support to help them adjust to living in the UK. Wilderness Wood wrote: ‘We have dropped plans to host a small group of asylum seekers s, due to threats from some groups and individuals. Wilderness Wood is not housing any asylum seekers. And we do not have any plans to do so.’ No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.