What an absolute travesty!

I thought I'd heard/seen it all but now I know I have...

Why are the real English prisoners not given a nice little start off package when they are released from jail??? Maybe a Brit who has recently been released or is about to be released from one of HM's prisons should get a human rights lawyer on to this...

After all - his/her human rights are being affected if the law is not applied equally. I await developments with interest.

John Rellie, Bicester, UK

The government is just being pragmatic. Let's look at the facts, we have over 12,000 foreign prisoners housed in the in the prison system at a total annual cost of about £400 million per annum. The cost per prisoner, is £33,000 per place, per year!

If you can get the prisoner out of UK prisons and back to his country of origin, its not hard to see, potential economic benefit to the UK.

Its interesting to see that the government will spend huge amounts of money on incarceration but almost nothing on real training for the unemployed, except for possibly the patronising "how to write a CV" course, which is practically useless and for which the government is over charged!

It's a very sad fact, that the greatest investment that the government will usually ever make in the uneducated British male, is imprisonment!

Graham Wharton, St Albans, uk

Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime, ten years on and this government is still trying to work out how to be tough. What a bunch of pussy cats this Labour government are!

D Case, Newquay,

Now there's a neat way to visit my homeland over Christmas! Come back now, break a shop window or five, get banged up and then get offered the price of my airfare to beat it back to the US. What a deal!

Of course, having agreed to take the bribe I need not actually leave. I know that, once a get out through those prison gates, HMG will be unable to keep track of me as far as Heathrow. I may stay until Burns' Night.

On the other hand, come to the USA where I live and commit a crime. I guarantee you will not be offered a bribe to go home. You will be banged up until your plane's ready to leave. Don't have a country that's willing to take you? No problem, you'll stay locked up until that little problem's resolved - however long that takes.

But then, the USA didn't sign up for the Human (Criminals) Rights Act.

John Blackley, Austin, TX, USA

Of course if you're a pensioner on the bread line, who has never broken the law, you are offered nothing. Disgusting

judy, Liverpool, england

It's just pointless commenting on this as I like everyone else am lost for words, This truly is a crackpot government and I am absolutely bemused.

preddo53, leeds, UK

Why not make the politicians and the civil servants who supported this stupid idea to pay the criminals out of their own salaries? If these useless politicians and civil servants refused to do so, sack them because it is their stupid idea and they have to take responsibility for it.

Carolyn, Surbiton,

This is outrageous - why do criminals have to be paid to go back to their homeland? Why can't the British Government take a leaf out of the Italians book and send home anyone who commits a crime in their new country. It's time we stopped pussyfooting around and dealt with these situations properly.

Caroline, Saint Nazaire,

So for the asylum seeker, pay the people smuggler £1000 to get you here, have a two year holiday at our expense, meet a very well paid human rights lawyer and then go home showing a £3000 profit.

This country is a basket case!

PeteS, London,

Why the hell are we PAYING criminals? They should automatically be deported at the end of their sentence. That's what happens inmost countries around the world so why is Britain different? And, before the dogooders start moaning and the low life lawyers start complaining , if these deportees are likely to suffer in their own country then perhaps they shouldn't have committed a crime in a country which offered them sanctuary!

george, glasgow, Uk

I completely agree with Mr Leech, offering money to foreign criminals in prison to return to their countries is not adviceable.
The offer is not going to deter other people form commiting a crime, it is just going to offer them an excuse for commiting a crime. So, on the one hand you may be dealing with the current overcrowding in Jails but what about the subsequent overcrowding. The problem is two fold, creating more prison places and stopping crime rates so as not to cause overcrowding again.
Second of all, someone ought to think about where the money is coming form. Much of Government expenditure is subsidised by tax payers` taxes. It is well nown we already have a problem in terms of immigrant influx and benefit unemployment causing a strain on the tax payer without afurther rise in taxes caused by this Bribe idealism for prisoners.

flavia, london, uk

The Swiss are in the process of passing a law that enables them to not only throw out the criminal but also in severe cases the criminals family. Some might scream How dare they? what abt the families human rights?".... but i agree with the Swiss, what better way to protect their country from the crazies? if u cant obey the laws of the country you have moved to expect to be thrown out..the law abiding population has a right to exect to live without crime. The labour Govt is weak and pathetic in the most extreme sence of the words. £1500 to leave!!..thats a damned disgrace , an insult to the victims of the crime and humiliating to the country as a whole.. simply tattoo them (great idea, pete), throw them out...and charge them for the transport too.

Zugerman, Zug, Switzerland

Don't even think about deporting them to Australia!
We don't want them!! (Nor the global warming caused by transporting them to the other side of the planet.)

That applies to the politicians!!!
We don't need the crims either!!!!

DavidN, Melbourne, Australia

These criminals gave up the right to the UK the moment they committed a crime here. If you pay them to go away they'll come back for more free money and health care.

The Government should deport them ASAP without any jackpot payouts and make me pay £1500 less tax each year.

These bribes to criminals are an insult to me as a member of the UK public and makes me furious. IS THE GOVERNMENT DUMB?

Andrew, Harrow, UK

How terribly British or should I say English. Only this country would pay prisoners to leave the country. They are PRISIONERS therefore CRIMINALS, send them back immediately. Why are they in our prisons anyway, they should have been immediately returned to their own countries when they broke our laws. Grow a backbone and do the right thing.

P McKnight, Belfast, N. Ireland

It's Unbelieveable to think what goes on in this country! What is said, thought and done. These people are criminals - They should be shipped out of here as soon as there sentances are over - Not Rewarded for actually making it!! No wonder we are being overflooded with Immigration - We are too soft. Where is our pride? Where is the help for us British? Those who were Born here, Live here and Work here; Paying Taxes so that some lousy Prisoners can go home and 'Be Ok' for a little while?? What about us? Its ridiculous to think that our soldiers are fighting in Iraq, to try and 'help' others, sometimes without the right equipment, unifrom, etc - Because there is no money. But at Least the foreign prisoners will be ok. Whats Next..

Jodie, Bolton,

Italy now kicks foreign criminals out of their country whilst what does this gutless Labour government do, it tries to bribe them to leave. Whether its labeling of food or more seriously law and order, other countries like France have pursued whats needed for them and worried about the EU afterwards. As has happened several times, the EU has backed the individual countries or even an individual like the British grocer who wanted weights in pounds and ounces as well as grams. Contrast this approach with the spineless bottling of cowardly New Labour ministers who cry 'human rights' as their excuse for not cracking down on ALL law and order issues. Even now after the Italians have acted all we hear from Browns government is that 'we are studying the Italian law'. Unlike the 24/7 protection ministers enjoy at tax payers expense its time this the population was afforded a modicum of protection for a change.

Mike, Alicante, Spain

For pitties sake, just kick the buggers out! But tattoo them 1st so it can be checked if they try and re-enter the country.

Pete, St Albans, England

If I commit a crime abroad, and serve a prison sentence, I would be deported as soon as I served my time. Why do we have to pay these low lifes money when they should be put on the first boat or plane out of here on the day their sentence ends. They will only sneak back and we'll have to pay them to go away again. No ifs, no buts, no money .That money should be going to pensioners who paid into the system, not to criminals who should not have been allowed to come here in the first place. The USA, and Australia wouldn't have let them in, yet we, a tiny island, let all and sundry in, and now the PTB want to pay them to go? It beggars belief. The Inmates are running the Asylum. Can someone give me £1,500 to settle somewhere warm so my arthritis won't give me so much pain? I haven't even had a holiday since 1975, so £1,500 would at least give me a few weeks in the sun.

Beryl, WINDSOR, England

Any advance on 1,500? Do I hear two thousand?

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Why don't we follow Italy's lead and change the law to get rid of foreign criminals? Let the law-abiding and working foreigners stay.

David, Poole,