The number of foreign criminals that have been freed onto the streets of Britain rather than being deported has hit a record high under the left-wing Labour Party government of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
According to a report from The Sun, Britain’s top circulation newspaper, a record 19,491 migrant criminals have been released back into public despite being eligible for deportation.
The cohort of migrant offenders remaining in Britain has soared in recent years, jumping by over 300 per cent from 2017 when there were 5,933 walking UK streets.
The paper further reported that the number of migrant criminals living in Britain has jumped by nearly 1,000 since Prime Minister Starmer took power last year.
In September, the government announced new powers to the Home Office to immediately deport foreign offenders from prison, rather than just those who had been sentenced to over a year in prison. The government also reduced the amount of time spent behind bars to become eligible for removal from 50 per cent to 30 per cent.
However, deportations can still be blocked by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK remains bound by despite Brexit as it is technically a separate institution from the European Union, despite sharing the same anthem, flag, and campus in Strasbourg.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has vowed to withdraw from the ECHR agreement, which has frequently been appealed to by foreign criminals, sex offenders, and terrorists to prevent the British government from removing them from the country.
Mr Farage has also vowed to establish a Deportation Command Centre to “track down, detain, and deport all illegal migrants in the United Kingdom”.
In contrast, the left-wing Labour government, like multiple Tory governments before it, has so far refused to withdraw from the ECHR, seeking instead to pair with European members to reform the agreement to make it easier to remove foreign criminals.
The UK among others is pressing for limits on Article 3 and 8 of the Convention, which prevent members from deporting migrants if they face potentially inhumane treatment in their home country and from removing migrants if it might negatively impact their families. It is unclear if and when such reforms would come into effect.
At present, there are around 10,500 foreign criminals in British jails, accounting for about 12 per cent of the entire prison population. With each prisoner costing over £50,000 a year, the cost to the British taxpayer to jail foreigners stands at a staggering £1.3 million per day.
Responding to the latest figures, a Home Office spokeswoman said: “This government will not allow foreign criminals and illegal migrants to exploit our laws, which is why we are reforming human rights laws and the broken appeals system, allowing us to scale up deportations.”
“All foreign national offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity.”
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