Thread: 850 foreign offenders in British jails because they can't be deported

850 foreign offenders in British jails because they can't be deported

Tory MPs attack 'crazy' human rights laws after official figures show 850 foreign offenders are being held in British jails after serving sentence because authorities can't deport them

850 foreign prisoners remain in prison after serving their sentences as they fight deportation Photo: PA

By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent
10:00PM BST 14 May 2014

Almost 1,000 foreign prisoners are being held in British jails after the end of their sentence because authorities cannot deport them, including 10 who have been able to stay in this country for more than five years.

Many of the foreign offenders, who include rapists, paedophiles and murderers, are using human rights laws to fight against their deportation and remain in Britain at a cost to taxpayers of up to £34 million a year.

The number of foreign offenders awaiting deportation has risen by two thirds under the Coalition, from 491 to 850

It comes after David Cameron earlier this year refused to support an amendment by a Tory backbenchers to ban foreign prisoners from using article 8 of the human right act, which gives them the right to family life, to remain in the UK.

Dominic Raab, the Tory MP who tabled the amendment, said: "We need to get rid of them. It is crazy, what you are effectively seeing is a huge increase in risk because we are failing to remove people who are obviously dangerous.

Related Articles

• No clear date to deport nearly half of foreign prisoners, says official inquiry
  12 Dec 2013
• 'Irresponsible' prisons release foreign criminals, says jail watchdog
  23 Oct 2013
• New Home Office foreign criminals scandal
  06 Aug 2011

"It is a perversion of the law and frankly to the average person it looks like a total lack of common sense. We need to eliminate Article 8 appeals by foreign nationals."

The figures, published in parliamentary answer, disclose that 10 foreign offenders have been held for more than five years longer than their sentences.

A total of 35 have remained in jail for between two and five years, 100 for between one and two years and 705 for a year or less. The length of time prisoners remain in the UK after serving their sentence is seven months.

The government is introducing legislation which will mean that criminals are deported first and that their appeals are then heard abroad to end the “never-ending game of snakes and ladders” under the current immigration system.

The Conservatives are also expected to pledge to scrap the Human Rights Act as in the party's manifesto for the 2015 election and replace it with a British bill of rights.

Sadiq Khan, the shadow justice secretary who obtained the figures, said: "British jails are seriously overcrowded and rammed to overflowing. Yet data I’ve uncovered shows 850 foreign criminals who could be deported are clogging up prisons because of this Government’s incompetence.

"That’s the equivalent of two decent sized prisons just to hold criminals who should have been deported. The Government are offering words where there should be action and appear to have thrown the towel in on this. It will be left to Labour to act and deport these foreign criminals”.

Offenders from the European Union can be deported if they are sentenced to two year jail sentences unless they have committed drugs offences or sexual crimes, in which case they can be deported if they are jailed for one year.

A Home Office spokesman said:“Those who come to the UK must abide by our laws and where they do not, we will take the necessary steps to deport them.

“We make every effort to ensure that an offender’s removal coincides with the completion of their sentence. Detention may be prolonged if an individual refuses to co-operate with the removal process or raises last minute challenges or there are difficulties obtaining the necessary travel documentation.

"Through the Immigration Act we are making it harder for those with no right to be here to avoid removal from the UK. It will cut the number of appeal rights from 17 to four and allow us to remove people while their appeals are ongoing.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...-deported.html

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Dominic Raab, the Tory MP who tabled the amendment, said: "We need to get rid of them. It is crazy, what you are effectively seeing is a huge increase in risk because we are failing to remove people who are obviously dangerous.

I think that this describes the situation in our own country pretty well.
***********************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Except we don't hold those foreign nationals in jail/prison after their sentence is served and we can't deport them. We release them back onto US streets to commit more crimes and to be an illegal alien all over again.

We do need a law that states foreign nationals cannot appeal deportation's and if they refuse their deportation or their home country does they will be kept in prison camps that don't offer any benefits.... not even electricity other then for the armed trigger happy guards.