Exiles forced to sleep rough at Gatwick Airport after fleeing their island home are being offered £1,000 flights back.

Cash-strapped West Sussex County Council last night said it could not continue to house the 30 men, women and children who arrived in Sussex last month.

Instead, those who have not found jobs within a month will be offered a ticket back to Mauritius, the island they hoped they had left finally behind.

The offer was greeted with dismay by the group last night.

Gabriel Valentin, 46, who speaks French, said: "It's an insult. I have a British passport but I do not feel I am being treated like a British citizen.

"It is almost impossible to find a job when we don't speak English and although some have found temporary jobs it is very difficult."

Her friend Richelieu Seebalam, 44, added: "We came to Britain to fight for our right to stay. We do not want to go back to Mauritius until we have some recognition of that."

But the council insisted paying for accommodation for the islanders at a Crawley hotel, at a cost of £250-a-week each, was putting a strain on other services for the elderly and sick.

A spokesman said the authority would continue to pay their housing and living expenses for four weeks.

He added: "After that if they have not found jobs and are capable of looking after themselves they will be offered a flight home."

It is unclear if the council has a duty to continue to provide accommodation for those who refuse.

The group are among 5,000 Chagos islanders who have lived in poverty in Mauritius for more than 20 years after their beach homes in the Indian Ocean were bulldozed to make way for a US military base.

The group - who were last year given British passports to compensate for their deportation - spent their life savings on tickets to Britain in search of better lives.

But when they arrived, the county council at first refused to provide accommodation. They spent two weeks sleeping rough at Gatwick before a High Court ruling forced the authority to house them.

That order ran out on Friday.

A letter to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw from Mark Dunn, the council's Cabinet member for social and caring services, says: "On current projections, the annual charge to the community care budget will be some £500,000 this year alone.

"If the situation is not remedied, this cost will increase. The immediate victims of this are older people delayed in hospital and denied their independence at home.

"As the Chagos islanders are British Citizens, they have a legal right to be here.

"Our request is that the Government recognises this is an emergency situation and exercises discretion to allow access to benefits for these people on their declaration at port of entry.

"At present this is paid, according to custom and practice (but not the law) at six months.

"The current situation is not sustainable for us."