Officials have “no interest” in deporting foreign prisoners
Immigration officials have “no interest” in deporting thousands of foreign prisoners, a leaked memo shows.
Guidance sent from Michael Spurr, the director general of the Prison Service, to prison officers reveals officials at the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) “as a rule.have no interest” in deporting foreign nationals who were in jail for less than 12 months.
Critics say this undermines the government’s claims to be toughening up procedures for foreign prisoners but the chief executive of the BIA, Lin Homer, insisted it did not deviate from official policy.
Ms Homer explained the BIA acts to remove the most dangerous offenders, including rapists and murderers, first.
She continued: “The prime minister was categorical earlier this year that we are committed to the removal of foreign national prisoners who commit serious crimes in this country.
“Nothing in this document changes that and, in fact, this year we have removed more foreign nationals than ever before.
“We have repeatedly said we will target the most dangerous first which is why we are initially targeting those who have served more than 12 months.”
The former prime minister Tony Blair said last year he would change the law so that most foreign prisoners were deported immediately after they completed their sentence.
Ministers promised to toughen up measures after it emerged 1,013 foreign prisoners had not been considered for deportation in 2006, including serious sexual and violent offenders.
The subsequent row led to Charles Clarke’s removal from the Home Office.
Gordon Brown continued to publicly back a tougher approach at this year’s Labour conference, when he said any foreign national involved in gun or drug crime would be deported.
Mr Brown told party activists: “No-one who sells drugs to our children or uses guns has the right to stay in our country.”
But the Conservatives claim the leaked memo undermines the government’s claim to be getting tough on foreign prisoners.
They calculate that, with the majority of prisoners sentenced to less than 12 months, at least 4,000 foreign criminals will evade deportation, including those convicted of drug dealing, benefit fraud, theft and burglary.
This, the Tories point out, is equal to the number of foreign nationals Mr Brown promised to deport by the end of this year.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said: “The vast majority of offenders who are sent to prison are sentenced to less than a year, so this directive will apply to a large number of foreign nationals every year who will now not be considered for deportation.
“Gordon Brown claimed that he wanted to send a message that foreign criminals would be deported. It takes a special kind of cynicism to promise tough action on foreign criminals while simultaneously instructing that the majority of them are to be released.”
The memo, which was circulated to prison governors on November 26th, reads: “The criminal casework directorate (CCD) of the Border and Immigration Agency have confirmed to us that as a rule they have no interest in pursuing foreign national prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months for deportation unless they have a court recommendation for deportation, are already subject to deportation proceedings, or (in the case of non-EEA nationals) were sentenced to less than 12 months but where the current sentence plus one or two previous sentences within the last five years (taking account of the most significant sentences during the period) total 12 months or more.”
More than 11,000 of the 81,000-strong prison population are foreign nationals.
Figures show 2,784 foreign prisoners were deported or removed between April 2006 and March 2007.
