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Human rights

Labour to Introduce Automatic Deportation for Foreign Criminals

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

Shabana Mahmood, the UK's Justice Secretary, has announced plans to introduce automatic deportation for foreign criminals who commit serious crimes in the country. According to Mahmood, this move is aimed at tackling the issue of victims watching as perpetrators remain in the UK, often reoffending. The current rules require foreign nationals to serve at least half of their sentence in a UK prison before being deported, but this is set to be reduced to 30% from September, with the requirement being removed entirely from next year.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Labour government plans to introduce automatic deportation for foreign criminals who commit serious crimes in the UK.
  • The change will apply to those convicted in the future, as well as those currently serving sentences in UK prisons.
  • Foreign prisoners will face being deported from the very first day of their sentence and will be barred from returning to the UK.
  • The cost of keeping foreign national offenders in UK jails is a staggering half a billion pounds every year.
  • The number of foreign nationals in UK prisons, England and Wales is over 10,000, with their incarceration costing the taxpayer half a billion pounds every year.
  • Shabana Mahmood has sent teams into prisons to identify inmates for deportation and has increased the rate of removals by 14% compared with the last Tory government.
  • The move comes amid controversy over crimes committed by some asylum seekers put up in taxpayer-funded hotels.
  • At least 200 people living in the hotels have been charged with a combined 425 offences this year.

Statistics:

  • More than 10,000 migrants are currently in UK prisons, with their incarceration costing the taxpayer half a billion pounds every year.
  • The number of foreign nationals in UK prisons, England and Wales is over 10,000.
  • At least 200 people living in asylum seeker hotels have been charged with a combined 425 offences this year.
  • The Labour government has deported almost 5,200 foreign criminals in the first 12 months, a figure 14% higher than the last Conservative government achieved in the previous year.

Sources:

  • [The Telegraph, article "Labour to introduce automatic deportation for foreign criminals", available at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/14/labour-introduce-automatic-deportation-foreign-criminals]
  • [Shabana Mahmood, letter published in The Telegraph, "Foreign criminals forfeit their right to stay in Britain"]

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