The number of foreign criminals living free in communities throughout the United Kingdom has hit a record high, with over 10,000 criminals roaming the streets despite being eligible for deportation.

Home Office figures revealed that some 10,373 foreign criminals have been released from prison yet have so far skirted deportation — meaning the number of foreign national offenders living in British communities has hit the highest level in recorded history.

While the pandemic has made deportations more difficult, the drop in deportations predates the coronavirus. The number of foreign national offenders remaining in the country has dramatically risen since 2012 when, officially, fewer than 4,000 were living in Britain.

In the year leading up to September, only 3,374 criminals were kicked out of the country, representing a drop of a third over the previous year period, The Times reports.

Last year, nearly 2,600 foreign criminals were released from prison rather than being deported, meaning that on average seven foreign criminals were set free onto British streets per day.

There are also currently around 9,000 foreign national offenders currently imprisoned in the country, accounting for over a tenth of the total prison population.

David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention, told the Daily Mail: “It is an outrage that so many convicted foreign criminals have been left free to roam our streets.”

“The Home Secretary [Priti Patel] needs to ensure that, where possible, all foreign criminals are returned to their home country once they have served their time,” he added.

The failure to deport foreign criminals has come at a cost in blood. Last year, for example, Libyan national Khairi Saadallah stabbed three men to death in a radical Islamic terror attack just sixteen days after being released from prison.

The Home Office has consistently blamed the failure to deport more criminals and illegal aliens on the efforts of “do-gooding” celebrities, protesters, and “activist lawyers”, who have sought to block return flights.

In December, 23 criminals were taken off a flight to Jamaica, after human rights lawyers argued that the criminals may be victims of modern slavery. The move came amidst pressure from left-wing politicians, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and over 80 black celebrities and businessmen, including supermodel Naomi Campbell.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is reportedly considering to make it easier to deport foreign criminals who are serving shorter prison sentences, by dropping the deportation threshold from twelve-month prison sentences to six.

The upcoming Sovereign Borders Bill will also seek to place limits on the ability of foreign criminals to launch last-minute human rights challenges to their deportation.

However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shown no interest in leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, upheld by the European Court of Human Rights which still has jurisdiction in Britain despite Brexit.

The Convention prohibits the United Kingdom from shipping back criminal migrants to their native countries if it is believed that they will face inhumane treatment in their homeland — no matter whether they present a danger to the public.

In February, a British judge stopped the deportation of a double rapist, who posed a “high risk of serious harm” to the public, as it was determined that he would not receive adequate mental healthcare in his home country of Somalia.

In June of last year, a Scottish judge also blocked the removal of a Taliban fighter after the terrorist claimed to be suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of fighting for the Islamist terrorist group, and that he would not receive the same quality of taxpayer-funded care in Afghanistan as in Scotland.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka