Wednesday, 05 March 2008   Britain has increased the sum they are willing to pay Jamaicans and other non-European prisoners in the UK to leave Britain.

The offer, part of the UK's drive to tackle prison overcrowding, now exceeds 3,000 pounds.

This is up from a figure of over 2,000 pounds offered in October last year.

The enhanced "financial reintegration package" is being offered until the end of next month as the Prison Service struggles with a record jail population.

Foreign criminals from outside the European Economic Area are able to apply for help with education, training, housing and resettlement of up to three thousand pounds until the end of next month.

There are an estimated 11,000 foreign prisoners in jails in England and Wales.  

An estimated 3,000 are Jamaicans.

Only last month the British government announced that thousands of foreign prisoners would be deported almost a year early as part of its efforts to relieve overcrowding.