I have just read yesterdays Echo which states that foreign prisoners are to get offered £1.500 to go home!!!!

Has someone gone mad? Why not just deport them for free?

They are talking about 4,000 prisoners ...do the maths to the tax payer, what stops them re-entering the uK once they have had the money?

Do we do any sort of criminal checks on freign nationals entering the country?
Free Movement of Peoples, is responsible for them entering the UK and indeed re-entering the UK even after we've paid them to bugger off.

There is no means of checking an EU citizens criminal background in effect sex, violent or whatever criminals may enter the UK unchallenged and there isn't a thing our border controls can do about it. it's that warm fuzzy EU feeling. more to the point it is effectively illegal under EU law to check EU citizens entering the country.
... And I might be wrong but I think you can only deport to the country of origin, which apparently has problems with them not wanting them back or asylum issues. Whereas 'just go to another country’ is an insular, I mean simpler, quick win. ...
It seems a bit like dumping the problem on to another country, any country, instead of working to solve the problem.

Giving 1,500 pounds is a cash reward for getting to the UK, which can be done for less than 1,500 pounds from inside the EU. We are paying criminals to come back again, and again. Deporting them may cost more the first time, but it does not give the criminals a cash reward.

The UK and EU criminal record system is broken. There is no reason that the criminal should not have a criminal record that can be seen by the government and by employers. In the USA, criminal records are considered public information and can be searched by anyone. For example, a background search of public records in the USA covers Current phone number, address, address history for 30 years, age, birth dates, household members, relatives, associates, property ownership, lawsuits, marriage, divorce, criminal records check, sex offenders, terrorist watch, bankruptcy, tax liens. It might seem a little intrusive, but it is all gleaned from public records.

The UK is facing a similar immigration problem as the USA has from Mexico. Open boarders = unlimited immigration, criminals and all. We need a way to screen all the entrants, block the criminals from entry and from employment.