Nearly SIX THOUSAND foreign criminals still in UK after being released from prison
Just under two thousand ex-prisoners born abroad are still in the country five years after getting out
ALMOST 1,800 foreign criminals who should have been deported are still here five years after being freed from jail.
They are among 5,895 lags born abroad who have been left at large following release.
The total eligible for deportation only for them to have spent half a decade still here was revealed to be 1,792 after an MP prised figures out of the Home Office.
A further 2,227 have dodged being booted out for more than 12 months but have yet to reach the five-year mark.
Labour’s Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, demanded urgent action as he exposed the scandal.
He said: “These are extraordinary figures.
To have failed to deport nearly 1,800 people after five years shows that there is something seriously wrong with the system.
“It can’t be right that people who have been convicted of a criminal offence in this country have been allowed to stay for up to half a decade with apparently no prospect of removal.
The Home Office said that in the past year 5,692 foreign offenders have been given the boot, the most since records began.
A spokesman said: “Any foreign national offender who poses a threat to the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.
“Those who are released by an Immigration Judge will be subject to stringent bail conditions, which can include tagging, while we continue to pursue their removal.
“We take our duty to protect the public very seriously and the recently introduced Immigration Act will mean that all foreign offenders who are subject to outstanding deportation proceedings will be electronically tagged.”