FAILED asylum seekers in Merseyside will be forced to do unpaid community service in return for accommodation while they wait to be deported, the Daily Post can reveal.
The controversial pilot scheme, set to be launched by the YMCA on behalf of the Government, was last night condemned as tantamount to slavery.
The project, to be launched in Liverpool and Chester, will see failed asylum seekers put to work on community projects in exchange for a roof over their heads in the weeks and months before they are sent home.
Immigration Minister Des Browne says the aim is to give people whose countries are too dangerous for them to return immediately a chance to "put something back into the community".
The YMCA says it is confident that the pilot scheme will provide "a pragmatic, positive and innovative approach to what is a complex and sensitive issue".
But voluntary agencies have heavily criticised the scheme as "monstrous" and several groups have mounted campaigns urging YMCA England to re-consider.
One major concern is that everyone who took part in the scheme would also be required to sign a document relinquishing their claim to asylum in this country and agreeing to be deported at any time.
Liverpool council and union leaders are also opposing the scheme, which a spokesman for the city says puts asylum seekers "in the same category as criminals."
Last night, Alec McFadden, president of the North West TUC, said: "This is tantamount to re-introducing slavery.
"It is especially disconcerting that YMCA England have chosen to pilot this in Liverpool, a city that has worked so hard to rid itself of its links with slavery, and is at the core of a campaign to make August 23 World Anti-Slavery Day.
"The unions cannot support any initiative where people are forced to work without pay. Prisoners are treated better."
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