Freed to walk our streets, 1,000 European criminals we should have deported
MORE than 1,000 European criminals jailed in Britain are still here because they were not deported on their release, new figures reveal.
Offenders – including rapists, robbers, paedophiles and drug dealers – have been released back into communities.
Home Office data proves the number of criminals from Europe who are still in Britain, having served their time in jail, was 1,167 at the end of last year.
Instead of being locked up until being thrown out, they are released – at risk of absconding and potentially putting the public in danger.
Meanwhile, separate statistics published by the beleaguered Whitehall department showed there were 4,217 such foreign national offenders awaiting deportation from Britain, up by 1,502 since 2010.
Foreign EU criminals are automatically considered for deportation if they serve a prison term, irrespective of the length.
MPs and criminal justice experts yesterday said the Home Office had been ‘inexplicably negligent’ in failing to get a grip on the system for booting out convicts from overseas. The figures are another blow for Home Secretary Theresa May who has been unable to meet her flagship pledge to reduce net migration – the growth of the UK population – to under 100,000. It currently stands at 323,000. Leave campaigners argued the figures once again highlighted how EU membership meant Britain had lost control of its borders.
It is the first time the number of European Economic Area criminals – those from the 27 other EU nations plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway – who are awaiting deportation has been published. The figure was uncovered in Parliamentary answers.
Tory MP David Davis, a leading Eurosceptic, said: ‘It’s very disappointing that hundreds of foreign nationals who have broken the law, gone to prison and should be deported are back in the community, no doubt claiming benefits and free housing.
We need to send a tough message that anyone who wants to break the laws of the UK should abide by our rules, or else. This is another good reason to leave the EU.’
Of the 4,217 criminals due to be thrown out, 2,748 are still behind bars because they are mid-sentence.
A total of 302 have completed sentences and are in immigration removal sentences or, if they are high risk, detained in prison at an average cost of about £100 a day.
And 1,167 have been released from jail on to Britain’s streets. In about one in five cases, more than a year has elapsed since the criminal walked free.
Most of them have challenged their deportation orders in courts and tribunals, many using controversial human rights or asylum laws despite facing removal to a European country.
Others did not have travel documents so could not be removed immediately and other offenders have refused to board planes. David Green, of think-tank Civitas, said: ‘The fact they aren’t [deported] is inexplicable negligence by the Home Office.’
And Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: ‘Allowing them to remain in the country in this way risks the possibility that they will offend again. So many are from EU countries and these ought to be the first to go.’ In total, about 5,800
‘They could offend again’
foreign national offenders from across the world are living in the UK waiting to be deported.
But the Home Office said it was getting a handle on the problem and had removed almost 5,600 foreign national offenders in the past year, including 3,310 who were from European countries.
Immigration minister James Brokenshire said: ‘Any foreign national who poses a threat to the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.’