Migrant Deportation Deal: Why Was a Sex Offender Given £500 to Leave Quietly?

In the migrant deportation scandal UK 2025, convicted sex offender Hadush Kebatu pocketed £500 ($768) from taxpayers to ensure his unobstructed flight back to Ethiopia, capping a Home Office blunder that exposed glaring systemic flaws. Mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford on 24 October 2025 despite a deportation order, the Ethiopian sparked a frantic two-day manhunt after assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping's asylum hotel.

As sex offender payout UK controversies rage, politicians from Kemi Badenoch to Shabana Mahmood clash over foreign criminal removal costs, while Epping residents reel from deportation scheme failures and taxpayer money waste.

Kebatu's errant release and swift re-arrest

Hadush Kebatu, an Ethiopian who crossed the Channel on 29 June 2024, resided at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, an asylum seeker accommodation. On 25 July 2024, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court convicted him of five offences, including attempting to kiss and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in Epping town centre, followed by assaulting the same girl and another woman the next day.

He denied the charges but received a 12-month sentence under the UK Borders Act 2007, mandating deportation for foreign nationals jailed 12 months or more. Scheduled for transfer to an immigration centre on 24 October 2025 under the Early Removals Scheme, prison staff erroneously freed him due to 'human error', as Justice Secretary David Lammy described.

By 13:00 BST, Essex Police alerted to the escape, Kebatu had sought public aid in Chelmsford before boarding a train to London. A public tip led to his arrest near Finsbury Park station on 26 October 2025, ending the manhunt.

Metropolitan Police rejected Kebatu's claim of approaching an officer on 25 October 2025, stating no evidence supported it and his actions suggested evasion. This fiasco, amid rising unauthorised migrants returns, amplified public outrage over asylum hotel assaults and deportation delays.

Discretionary deal: £500 ($768) payment to avert chaos

Post-rearrest, officials eyed 28 October 2025 deportation, but Kebatu threatened asylum claims to derail the flight, prompting a discretionary £500 ($767) offer from the removal team. This bypassed the Facilitated Returns Scheme's £1,500 ($2,302) voluntary incentive, denied to hasten 'forcible' exit without extras.

Escorted by five officers, he departed Tuesday night, landing in Addis Ababa on 29 October 2025; Ethiopian police detained him briefly before release for lacking legal grounds. Migration Minister Mike Tapp justified it on BBC Newsnight: 'The alternative... was to take him off the flight, put him back into detention, charter another flight, and that could cost up to £8,000 ($12,274)'.

Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman echoed: the payout averted 'a slower, more expensive process for the taxpayer, which would have included detention, a new flight and potentially fighting subsequent legal claims'. BBC Breakfast highlighted the furore on X: 'Migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu... was given a £500 payment after threatening to disrupt his deportation.'

Critics slam this sex offender payout as rewarding defiance, contrasting with 'deport first' expansions to 15 countries for swift foreign criminal removal. Amid 111,084 asylum claims to June 2025, such incentives—standard under successive governments—fuel taxpayer fury over efficiency versus equity.

Fury over taxpayer waste and inquiries

The £500 ($767) revelation detonated outrage, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch decrying it as an 'outrageous waste of taxpayers' money' on 29 October 2025, pledging ECHR exit for unhindered deportations. Liberal Democrats' Max Wilkinson branded it 'outrageous', eroding trust in a 'fundamentally broken immigration system'.

Reform UK's Zia Yusuf called it an 'insult of the highest order', accusing failures in safety and spending. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood countered triumphantly: 'I have pulled every lever to deport Mr Kebatu... Our streets are safer because of it.'

YouGov polling on 27 October 2025 pinned blame variably, spotlighting systemic woes in migrant deportation UK. This row overshadows broader crises, with Britain topping Europe in per-capita deportations yet facing hotel housing for a third of claimants.