Illegal boat migrants in the United Kingdom are estimated to be 24 times more likely to be imprisoned for other offences than British citizens, according to analysis of government figures.
While the UK government does not provide a full accounting of the immigration status of criminals, a review of prison data by the opposition Conservative Party has suggested that boat migrants are far more likely to commit crimes than British citizens or even other legal migrants, The Times of London reported.
The study looked at the 10,838 foreign criminals imprisoned at the end of March in England and Wales, excluding those who had obtained a British passport.
Foreign passport holders had an imprisonment rate of 0.18 per cent when compared to the latest census in 2021, which recorded a population of 5.9 million. This compares to an imprisonment rate of 0.14 per cent for British citizens.
However, the analysis noted that the specific nationalities which make up the largest cohort of illegal boat migrants, including Afghans, Albanians, Iranians, Iraqis, and Somalians, have a much higher imprisonment rate than other groups.
When taking this into account, the Conservative Party report concluded that illegal boat migrants would have an estimated 3.4 per cent imprisonment rate. This would mean they would be 24 times more likely to be imprisoned than British citizens and 18 times more likely than legal migrants in the UK.
The analysis found, therefore, that out of the over 20,000 illegals who have crossed the Channel since the start of the year, around 700 would likely commit a jailable offence.
Conservative MP and shadow home secretary Chris Philp said of his party’s analysis: “This data shows the government’s loss of border control is putting the public at risk. Those from the main nationalities arriving are far more likely to commit crime and end up in prison than the general population.
“The illegal immigrants crossing the Channel are unvetted, unknown and uncontrolled. And now it is clear they are much more likely to commit serious crime. They are therefore a danger to the public.”
The Home Office attempted to downplay the analysis, claiming that it did not account for foreigners who commit crimes while visiting Britain on holiday.
The government department also noted that since young people overall are more likely to commit crimes, it would be natural to expect that illegal boat migrants — the vast majority of whom are young men — would be overrepresented.
“The comparison of these two data sets is completely unfounded. It is inappropriate to apply foreign imprisonment rates to small boat arrival data as these consist of very different groups of people,” a Home Office spokesman said.
There have been growing calls for the government to release full ethnic and immigration data of criminals in Britain, as is done in fellow European nations such as Denmark.
Although a full accounting has yet to be done, previous reports have suggested that certain migrant groups are more likely to be commit crimes than others, with an April analysis of police data finding, for example, that Sudandese migrants are 20 times more likely to be arrested on suspicion of sex crimes than British citizens.
On the other hand, migrants from Canada and Germany were less likely to be arrested for such crimes, leading some to argue that the government should prioritise immigration from countries with demonstrated lower levels of criminality.
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