Migrant criminals committed over 10,000 further crimes in a single year after being released from jail in Britain while evading deportation.
According to Ministry of Justice data, in the year up to March 2022, 3,235 foreign criminals committed 10,012 crimes after being released from prison and as they remained in the country, The Telegraph reports.
This was an increase of 25 per cent over the previous recording year, when 2,462 migrant criminals committed 8,021 offences after being set free.
Over the past four years, foreign criminals committed around 40,000 crimes after being set loose back onto the streets of Britain, rather than being deported, the MoJ told parliament. Crimes ranged from drug dealing to murder and included those who returned to the country illegally after having been deported.
While the Home Office is mandated by law to deport foreign criminals who served at least one year in prison, deportation efforts are often stymied by lengthy appeals by keenly interested lawyers.
Although deportations are often blocked by lawyers successfully appealing to rules laid out under the European Convention of Human Rights, the Labour government — like successive Tory governments before it — has so far refused to withdraw the UK from the ECHR, which the country is still bound by despite Brexit as it is despite all appearances technically a separate institution from the European Union.
The release of the data on foreign criminality has seen renewed calls for the government to release detailed statistics on the nationality and immigration status of convicted criminals in the country.
Former Tory Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said: “Tens of thousands of offences a year would be prevented if the Government took a zero-tolerance approach to deporting foreign national offenders. The public expects robust action.”
Jenrick has proposed legislation that would mandate the government inform parliament annually on the nationality, asylum or visa status of every criminal convicted in Britain over the pervious year.
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, who forced the most recent release of foreign criminal data from the MoJ, also called for the government to increase transparency on foreign criminals, including those in the country illegally and legally.
“Everyone who commits a crime should be deported. Why are we tolerating this, particularly when we see the reoffending rates are so high,” he said.
Meanwhile, a study released from Oxford University has branded Britain as the “Illegal Immigrant Capital of Europe”, finding that one out of every 100 people residing in the country is there illegally. The report found that the UK is currently home to approximately 745,000 illegal migrants, more than any other country in Europe and twice that in nearby France.
While Prime Minsiter Sir Keir Starmer vowed to the public to “smash the gangs” smuggling migrants across the English Channel from France, over 20,000 illegals have crossed the waterway since his Labour government came into power in July, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year.
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