Each asylum seeker in Britain gets a cash payout of £42.16 per week, the current National Asylum Support Service (NASS) rate – in addition to all the other benefits, which work out to a minimum of £200 per week.

Even this figure does not include the cost of translation services, NHS costs, prison and judicial costs and so on.

The cash payout figure has emerged into the public domain after Solihull Council refused to increase the level of payment it gives to failed asylum seekers – insisting that it is up to central government to fund the change.

The £42.16 per week does not include their rent, utility bills, TV license, items deemed ‘essential expenditure’ and a fortnightly travel allowance of £13.50.

Once all this is added up, the total amount paid out by taxpayers is well in excess of £200 per week.

There were 5,720 applications for asylum in the UK in the second quarter of 2008 (April to June) alone, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was 15 percent higher than the second quarter of 2007.

Including dependants, there were 6,840 asylum applications in the second quarter of 2008, 13 percent higher than the second quarter of 2007.

In 2002, there were 85,865 asylum applications to the UK – up 18 percent on the previous year.

Forty-three percent of those seeking asylum in the UK in 2002 came from Iraq (17%), Zimbabwe (13%), Afghanistan (9%), Somalia (9%) and China (8%). Other countries of origin of substantial numbers of asylum seekers include Sri Lanka, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

According to government figures, a total of 2220 failed asylum seekers were granted support between April and June this year instead of being deported.