Foreign criminals to be hauled out of jail and kicked out of UK

FOREIGN criminals will be hauled out of Scottish prisons and deported as part of a tough new crackdown.

The Home Office is to send specialist immigration officers into jails to prepare inmates to be kicked out of the country.

There are also efforts to secure more transfer agreements with other countries, so they do not even finish their term here.

There are 371 foreign nationals in Scottish prisons and it costs an estimated £35,585 a year to house one – a total annual bill to taxpayers of £13.2 million.

The Scottish Prison Service already had the ability to alert the Home Office about foreign nationals who could be deported at the end of their terms – but often this did not happen.

Many foreign criminals have fought and won legal aid-funded appeals against being returned to their homelands – and then reoffended when back on the streets of Scotland.

Last night, Sam Packer, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It is absolutely right to try to reduce the amount of taxpayer money spent on foreign criminals.’

Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘It makes sense for everyone involved to get dangerous foreign-national criminals out of our prisons and back to their place of nationality.

‘That eases the burden on our hard-working prison officers and saves cash for the taxpayer.

I hope the UK and Scottish Governments can work together to ensure this can be expanded.’

Home Office immigration officers are expected to arrive in Scottish prisons soon, to prepare foreigners for deportation at the ‘earliest opportunity’. All inmates from abroad will be considered, regardless of the nature of their crimes, whether their home country is in the European Economic Area) or farther afield, or if they have a visa to live and work in the UK.

The Home Office has prisoner transfer agreements with 110 countries, allowing them to deport people before their sentence is up. Some 51,000 inmates across the UK have been removed since 2010.

But a leading human rights lawyer warned prisoners must agree to their removal and cannot be sent to a country where their human rights would be breached. Niall McCluskey said: ‘I don’t think they can enforce it, if it breaches the European Convention of Human Rights Article 3 – prohibition of torture and inhumane treatment.’

But the Home Office insisted it would no longer allow foreign criminals to abuse UK hospitality. A spokesman said: ‘We make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals.’

The Scottish Prison Service said it is ‘committed to working with the Home Office’, adding: ‘This initiative will help support those within our care who are preparing to leave the country.

‘We will monitor this scheme and measure its success.’

‘Reduce taxpayer cash spent on criminals’