British Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced plans to pass legislation allowing for the immediate deportation of foreign criminals from the United Kingdom.
Amid increasing anger over the ramifications of the mass migration agenda imposed on the country by both Westminster establishment parties, the left-wing Labour government said on Saturday that part of its “Plan for Change” will see migrant criminals deported and barred from return rather than allowing them to serve their sentences in Britain.
The planned legislation would potentially mean that foreign convicts could avoid jail time altogether if their country of origin refuses to enforce the sentence handed down by a UK court, the BBC noted.
While most foreign convicts would become immediately eligible for deportation — down from the current standard of having served at least half their sentence in a British jail, murderers, terrorists, and anyone else deemed to pose a national security threat would not be eligible for removal until they served their full term behind bars in the UK.
At present, around 12 per cent of Britain’s prison population is comprised of foreign offenders, or over 10,000 migrants. According to the government, each prisoner costs the taxpayer an average of £54,000 per year.
In addition to alleviating costs, the move would potentially free up badly needed space in the nation’s prisons, which have been running at near capacity for years.
Indeed, during last summer’s anti-mass migration riots and protests in the wake of the Southport mass stabbing, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government controversially released prisoners early to make space for those convicted in connection to the riots, including some who merely made posts on social media.
Commenting on the planned change to the law, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said:
“This government is taking radical action to deport foreign criminals, as part of our Plan for Change. Deportations are up under this government, and with this new law, they will happen earlier and faster than ever before.”
However, critics, such as Conservative MP and Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, have noted that the legislation would do little to confront the issue of many countries refusing to accept the return of their criminals.
“If countries won’t take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid. His soft-touch approach isn’t working,” Jenrick said.
Former BBC presenter and Daily Mail columnist Andrew Neil also questioned the plans, pointing out that criminal deportations are often “stymied by hordes of highly-paid, Labour-supporting lawyers and judges (many friends of SurKeir and you) who’ve grown rich from the human-rights business. What’s going to change?”
Indeed, removals are often blocked on so-called human rights grounds under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK remains bound by despite Brexit, given the refusal of successive governments to withdraw from the technically non-EU institution.
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