The Danish government has extended its voluntary repatriation policy by increasing by ten times the amount of cash offered to Third World immigrants to return home.

Third Worlders in Denmark can each earn a healthy 100,000 kroner, the equivalent of £12,000, Danish government officials have announced.

The new policy is the result of pressure brought to bear by the Danish Peoples’ Party (DPP), which is a partner in the centre-Right coalition government in Denmark.

“The scheme is aimed at immigrants from outside the European Union and Nordic countries,” DPP deputy leader Peter Skaarup was quoted as saying.

“It in practice targets those nationals from non-Western countries who are struggling to adapt to Danish society and who would be tempted by a fairly significant sum to go back home forever,” he said.

Mr Skaarup said those taking up the offer would receive 11,000 kroner up front. The remainder of the 100,000 kroner would be paid out once they surrendered their Danish residency permits.

The agreement also calls for 20 million kroner in aid to city councils in charge of integrating immigrants, to help them “motivate” foreigners to return home.

According to the refugee, immigrant and integration ministry, some 2,524 people have voluntarily left Denmark since 1997, when the repatriation programme was introduced. Most of them were from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Somalia and Turkey.

Denmark has joined an increasing list of countries to adopt core elements of British National Party policy.

* Earlier this year, the island state of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean sent home thousands of Bangladeshi workers to protect local jobs in the downturn-hit textile sector.

* In December 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree aimed at cutting quotas for foreign workers by half, citing the fact that immigrant workers were taking jobs from Russians.

* In February 2009, the Czech government offered free plane tickets and €500 each to any foreign workers who voluntarily agreed to go home. The move was aimed at the more than 290,000 foreign workers who were registered in the country as of November the previous year.

* In June 2009, the Kuwaiti government announced its plans to expel some 500,000 foreign workers, citing the global economic downturn which has led to rising unemployment in Kuwait. “The mass expulsion is part of a government plan to combat poverty and unemployment,” reported the Kuwait newspaper al-Rai.

* In February 2009, the Malaysian government announced plans to send home 60 percent of its two million foreign workers. “There are certain sectors where we should be able to have Malaysians working in those sectors,” Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

* In February 2009, the Taiwanese government’s Cabinet-level Council of Labour Affairs (CLA) announced it was implementing measures which would cut the number of foreign workers there by some 30,000 before the end of this year.