More than 10,000 criminal offenses were committed in Britain in a single year by foreign criminals who had avoided deportation, according to recently published data from the Ministry of Justice.
As reported by The Telegraph newspaper, a total of 10,012 further offenses from 3,235 foreign offenders were recorded in the year to March 2022 — crimes that could have been avoided if the perpetrators had been deported and not allowed to continue to roam British streets.
The figure marks a significant increase of 25 percent compared to the previous year, which saw 8,021 offenses committed by 2,462 released foreign criminals.
The data showed that around one in four foreign criminals released after serving time for their crimes but not deported went on to commit further offenses — the severity of which ranged from murder to knife possession and drug-related crimes.
The Ministry of Justice released the data from April 2018 to March 2022 after a parliamentary request from newly-elected Reform U.K. MP Rupert Lowe.
In a post on X, he revealed that nearly 40,000 reoffenses had occurred during that period by foreign nationals — many of whom were legally obligated to have been deported by the Home Office. Of those offenses, nearly 5,000 were violent or sexual crimes.
“If our establishment had the courage to do what’s right, these crimes would never have happened. It’s a disgrace,” Lowe remarked.
The British newspaper highlighted several high-profile cases where foreign offenders went on to commit heinous acts of violence, citing the failed deportation attempt of Jamaican national Ernesto Elliott, who after successfully contesting his removal from Britain was convicted of robbing and stabbing to death a man in south London in June 2021.
In another instance involving a Jamaican drug dealer, Lloyd Byfield evaded deportation only to go on and kill a young woman in her own home, resulting in life imprisonment.
The previous Conservative government often cited left-wing activist immigration lawyers and their reliance on the European Convention on Human Rights as the major stumbling block in removing unwanted foreign criminals but has never had a leader commit to ditching the legislation.
"If we don't take a stand on fixing illegal migration, restoring sovereignty to our people and our Parliament, there isn't a future for the Conservative Party," Jenrick told a fringe event at the party's conference. https://t.co/wlJwPWtDQt
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 30, 2024The new left-wing Labour government has also refused to do so, insisting it will continue to honor existing international law.
In May last year, it was reported the then-Conservative administration had been paying convicted Albanian criminals to return to their home country and had even commuted the sentences of those currently incarcerated as an incentive. However, many had simply returned illegally within a matter of days.
Albanians comprise the largest percentage of the 10,000-strong foreign criminal population in Britain, followed by Poles, Romanians, Irish, and Jamaicans.
Former Conservative leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick, who previously served as an immigration minister and is now shadow justice secretary, scolded those responsible for failing to tackle the issue.
“Deport foreign criminals. Every lever of the state — from visa sanctions to withdrawing foreign aid — must be pulled to get countries to take back their own people,” he wrote on X.
