In January the government sent a terminally ill Ghanaian back to her country because her visa had expired. Yesterday in the European Court of Human Rights it was agreed that a Ugandan woman with HIV be sent back to Uganda as the drugs available in this country were available there also.
A NHS hospital bed costs an average £250 a day.
In 2003 a Government panel estimated the cost of providing treatment and preventing onward transmission for the 899 asylum seekers suffering HIV would be between £500 Million and £1 Billion in a life time.
This is a piss in the ocean when you consider the government is paying out £80 million a day just to have a presence in Iraq.
blacksheep63
Pro 
where do you want me to start?! we prioritise all the wrong things in our society (wars, security, crime) and neglect all the really important ones (poverty, equality, environment). second we all expect something for nothing and successive governments are hamstrung by a failure to convince the populace of the need to redistribute wealth fairly.
third (and this is naturally linked) we live in a 'me first' society - now this may have always been true to some extent but in the last 50 or so years it has become a quasi-religion.
fourth - we don't seem to be able to think beyond next week, next year, next election. We have allowed (perhaps even forced) our governments to become short-termist.
it is obscene that in 2008 there are still people living in poverty (however you define it) in Great Britain while the government spends the sums you suggest on a pointless imperialist war we cannot win