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No obligation to return the
Page 6
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Lim says Home Office GIVE US
• by Erma Penny The Home Office is still refusing to return the £2m it took from hauliers under its flawed stowaway penalty scheme, claiming it is "under no obligation to return any of the money paid".
The statement was in reply to an urgent Parliamentary question posed by Shadow asylum spokesman Humfrey Malins following a CMbriefing (see panel).
In her reply, Immigration Minster Beverley Hughes repeated the Home Office's statement—that it will not return the £2m, Malins says that, while the government's decision to drop the 112m of outstanding fines was welcome, its "apparent unwillingness to return the £2m that they have taken already is, in my view, completely wrong".
"To say that people who have paid are admitting liability is completely disingenuous, because a lot only paid up to keep their businesses going.
"Those that have paid up have suffered—and it gives the green light to those _ere that haven't paid. It's not fair for the government to keep the
DAYS
money—it's ludicrous," he concludes.
He also questions the government's intransigence. 1 don't understand the explanation. It's money which they can legally give back if it's true that legally they cannot enforce outstanding sums—you can't have one without the other. Any explanation that it's impossible to give [the money] back I would treat with a pinch of salt.
"I would be happy, as shadow Home
Office minister, to add my voice to CM'S, to urge the government to do the right thing, and return the sums which have been taken."
• It's 36 days since we wrote to David Munkett requesting the return of your money—and we are still waiting for a reply. Help us help you! Please fill the details in on page 12 and return it to CM—we'll collect them and present them to the Home Office as part of our £2m Back! campaign.