Fiasco! Record 7,300 foreign criminals set free but not deported

A RECORD 7,300 foreign criminals are living in freedom instead of being deported, Home Office figures reveal.

Killers, sex attackers, robbers and drug dealers are among the overseas offenders released after their prison sentences.

But even though the criminals are due to be thrown out of Britain, they are not detained. Many slip off the radar – potentially putting the public in danger. Others exploit human rights or asylum laws to avoid being sent home.

The figures also revealed 2,087 foreign criminals – or five a day – were freed in the year to June.

Last night MPs and criminal justice experts accused the Home Office of overseeing a ‘fiasco’. In total, 7,341 foreign national offenders due to be deported were living in the UK – up 46 per cent from 5,021 at the same point in 2015.

Nearly a third – 2,256 – have been on the loose for more than five years. A further 2,895 have dodged being booted out for between 12 months and five years.

Of the 588 offenders freed between April and June last year, only 29 have been deported.

It comes after a series of scandals affecting the Home Office, including the fallout from the Windrush scandal, when Commonwealth citizens were wrongfully removed or deported from the UK. Liberal

Democrat home affairs spokesman Christine Jardine said: ‘The Conservatives’ approach to immigration is completely shambolic.

‘Their hostile environment policies have seen innocent people detained and deported, but they are failing to properly enforce the law and keep people safe.

‘Home Office failures like this are what have shattered public confidence in the immigration system.’

David Spencer, of the Centre For Crime Prevention think-tank, said: ‘It is ridiculous that the Home Office is willing to put the public at risk by releasing known offenders on to the streets. It is a fiasco.

‘If a convicted criminal is facing deportation, they must be kept behind bars until their deportation is resolved.

‘It is time to put public safety before prison numbers and convict rights.’ Britain can deport EU criminals if they are sentenced to jail while non-EU criminals must have served at least one year behind bars.

Once a convict has served their sentence, they can only continue to be held if there is a good chance of imminent deportation.

Controversial guidelines say that those who have completed their sentences should be kept behind bars only if deporting them is a ‘realistic prospect’.

The Home Office said that since 2010 it had removed more than 51,000 foreign criminals.

A spokesman added: ‘Our priority will always be to keep the British public safe ...

‘Where removal isn’t immediately possible, electronic monitoring is already used to track foreign national offenders who have committed serious offences.’

‘Home Office put public at risk’