Migrant workers offered free flights home
The £150,000 National Reconnection Service aims to halt the rise of shanty towns that have sprung up in rural areas after jobs for foreign workers dried up in the recession.
It is said cheap one-way flights to Eastern Europe would cost the taxpayer less than if a migrant worker becomes ill or ends up in court.
As reported in the Echo in March last year, around 30 Poles were thought to be sleeping rough in Lincoln, with some living in tents near the River Witham in the east end of the city.
Unable to find work and not entitled to claim benefits, many migrant workers are reduced to living in such shanty towns, relying on handouts from friends to survive.
Lincolnshire's agricultural chaplain the Reverend Canon Alan Robson welcomed the idea, but said £150,000 was nowhere near enough to tackle the wider issue of homelessness.
The scheme is being trialled in Boston and Peterborough, but could be rolled out to the whole country if successful.
Polish immigrants who had lost their jobs and could no longer afford rent set up tents next to a drain in Lincoln
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