WAD A JOKE!

THOUSANDS of failed asylum seekers are being paid up to £3,500 taxpayers' cash to start their own BUSINESSES when they are sent home.

They are given the huge hand-outs with no questions asked - and the government has absolutely NO way of knowing what they do with our money, the News of the World can reveal.

Last year alone nearly 5,000 were sent packing with a wad of cash. If a whole family is kicked out EVERY member can claim the state grant, meaning they walk away with a fortune.

The great giveaway is part of the government's Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme, for asylum seekers who agree to return to their home countries.

The cash is also freely dished out to be spent on education, training or housing.

Home Office Minister Liam Byrne said three-fifths of asylum-seekers claim the hand-outs, with 87 per cent saying they want to start their own business.

Scandal

But he admits there are no checks to verify that the ventures are genuine.

Mr Byrne added: "No criteria are used to select recipients for help with reintegration in their country of return as all those who return through the Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme are eligible."

Even those who sneaked into Britain illegally can claim up to £1,000 each.

The handouts scandal has enraged critics of Britain's immigration policy.

Sir Andrew Green, of the Migrationwatch group, said: "It acts as a strong incentive for more asylum seekers to come here. If they succeed they get a meal ticket for life.

"And if they fail they go home with a very handy sum of money."

Tory backbencher David Davies said: "This is basically an advert to come over here and try your luck."

Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It is one thing paying these people's air fares to go home. But it is quite another to give them money to start a business.

"It is absurd to think we have an obligation to these people once they have left the country.

"Most people will think if we don't owe them a living while they are in Britain, we certainly don't owe them a living when they go home."