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If you were an Afghan refugee, would you take up the British government's offer of £2500 and a flight back to Afghanistan?

LONDON (Reuters) - A number of Afghan asylum seekers are to be forcibly repatriated by the Home Office after a voluntary scheme attracted just 39 applicants. A Home Office spokesman said 'a small number' of Afghans who had been refused leave to stay in Britain would be on a non-stop chartered flight on Monday, the first of a number of planned removals. The more robust approach follows a six-month trial voluntary repatriation scheme which offered up to 600 pounds of support for individuals and 2,500 pounds for families willing to go back to Afghanistan. Home Office officials had hoped that around 1,000 Afghans would take up the offer. The 39 who did sign up for the scheme have already returned. Asylum has become a contentious political issue in Britain, which received over 110,000 applications last year, the most in the European Union. Government figures show that some 3,285 Afghans were refused asylum or exceptional leave to stay in Britain in 2002. However, in the first nine months of 2002 just 345 were removed from the country. 'We are beginning with a small number on this first flight,' said the Home Office spokesman. 'We need to ensure the process is sustainable, that there is adequate infrastructure, there is security on the ground to receive them. Once we can establish that, we can build on this,' he added. Until last July, the vast majority of Afghans who were allowed to stay in Britain did so under so-called 'exceptional leave to remain' status, as Afghanistan was not considered safe. Since the fall of the Taliban regime however, Britain has stopped granting this status to Afghans failing to qualify for asylum. Only 110 Afghans were granted full refugee status in Britain last year, out of 8,105 cases considered, according to provisional government data.

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