British taxpayers will be billed over a million pounds for a European Union scheme to pay migrants around 1,000 euros each to leave the Greek islands, according to reports.
Officials have set aside a fund expected to cost the equivalent of £13.5 million to encourage bogus asylum seekers to abandon appeals against deportation and leave the Mediterranean country.
The first instalment of funding will be targeted at 5,000 rejected asylum seekers in EU “hotspots” on the islands of Chios, Kos, Leros, Lesvos, and Samos, which have become rife with crime and sexual violence.
“We are in danger, every day, every minute,” one of the native islanders told RTL Deutschland in 2015. “We need someone to protect us. They come into our houses. I want to go to work, but I can’t. Our children want to go to school, but they can’t. They have stolen our lives!”
Migrants who participate in the scheme will receive 500 euros up front and a free air ticket, followed by an additional 500 euro bonus once they arrive at the airport ready to depart.
Officials believe that around 16,000 migrants will take advantage of the programme, which gives the estimated cost of £13.5 million – although this does not include the price of plane tickets.
The European Commission will be covering around two-thirds of the figure, and Britain’s roughly £1 million share has been calculated by giving consideration to its share of the EU budget.
Britain voted to leave the European Union on 23 June, 2016, but will not be free of the supranational organisation for some years. It is expected it will first go through the lengthy negotiation process laid down by Article 50 of the Libson Treaty – meaning British taxpayers will be on the hook for many EU programmes in the meantime.
Brussels does, in fact, wish the United Kingdom to carry on paying into the EU budget for some time after it departs, with its estimation of the bill having recently risen from 60 billion euros to 100 billion euros.
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