Foreign criminals stay in UK as Tories fail to meet their deportation pledge

Thousands of foreign criminals jailed for serious offences are still escaping deportation, according to new figures.

The Home Office managed to remove just 5,277 overseas prisoners from the UK last year - despite receiving 10,461 referrals from the National Offender Management Service.

Some of those who avoided deportation are still serving their prison sentences at vast expense to the British taxpayer, while others are now at large on British streets.

These latest figures disclosed by the Home Office reveal David Cameron has broken his pledge of 2011 to kick out more foreign national offenders.

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The number of overseas criminals removed from the UK actually fell by more than 800 between 2010/11 and 2011/12, from 5,367 to 4,539.

And although numbers have slowly crept up again, the 5,227 deportations made last year was still well below the all-time high of 5,613 in 2008/9.

Alp Mehmet, of Migration Watch UK, said: “The fact is this government isn’t making any difference to the number of foreign criminals being removed and quite frankly it’s not good enough.

“If the political will is there, then with the right resources more could be done to remove people who have no right to be here.

“But at the moment the government is giving out the impression that if you manage to get into this country then the chances are no one is going to get rid of you.”

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Latest estimates by the National Audit Office (NAO) show the government spends between £770million and £1billion a year on managing foreign offenders.

A scathing report released by the UK spending watchdog last year criticised ministers for failing to deport more foreign criminals.

The NAO questioned why the number of foreign prisoners had gone up despite a near tenfold increase in officials working on their cases.

And they said one in three failed deportations could be avoided with better administration.

The report also revealed that 760 foreign national offenders – including 58 of the most dangerous criminals – went on the run after being released from prison to await deportation.

Some foreign criminals have avoided deportation on appeal by claiming a human right to family life in the UK.

Mr Mehmet said: “Sometimes spurious claims are being made under human rights legislation and there are times when judges need to deploy a bit more common sense when interpreting the law.

“Some of the decisions that have been made to keep foreign criminals in the country are completely inexplicable to the average person.”

But a Home Office spokeswoman insisted more was being done to deport overseas offenders.

She said: “This Government puts the rights of the British public before those of criminals, and foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.

“The 2014 Immigration Act reformed the deportation process and more than 2,000 foreign national offenders have been removed under the new deport first, appeal later powers.

“The Act also cut the number of grounds on which criminals can appeal deportations, speeding up removals so more are deported before the end of their sentences.

“Removals are increasing, with more than 5,200 foreign offenders removed last year.”