Foreign offenders freed from prison in the UK are going on crime sprees after avoiding deportation, government figures show.
Hundreds of foreign criminals freed from jail in the past four years have committed multiple offences after avoiding deportation or challenging their removal under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that 537 foreign criminals released from jail went on to commit more than 10 offences while avoiding deportation.
A further 1,260 committed between six and nine additional offences, according to the MoJ data. An additional 10,093 went on to commit between one and five crimes after being freed.
The figures were compiled by the Ministry of Justice – George Clerk/iStock Unreleased
Over the four years of the data, the 10,000 freed foreign offenders were responsible for about 40,000 crimes. Offences ranged from murder to knife possession, drug dealing, burglary and theft.
As well as criminals who avoided deportation, the data also included offenders who returned to the UK to commit further crimes after being removed.
The Home Secretary is required by law to deport any foreign criminal jailed for more than a year, but has discretion to also remove those jailed for under one year if such a move is considered to be in the public interest.
However, many of the offenders challenge their deportations through immigration tribunal appeals using the ECHR, domestic human rights laws or pre-Brexit EU rules.
Among convicted offenders previously revealed by The Telegraph to have avoided deportation after serving prison sentences are killers, a county lines gang leader, bank robbers and drug dealers.
Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth, who extracted the data from the MoJ, said: “Everyone who commits a crime should be deported. Why are we tolerating this, particularly when we see the reoffending rates are so high?”
Mr Lowe also urged the Government to be more open with information on the amount of crime committed by migrants, including those who entered legally and illegally.
Rupert Lowe, the Reform MP who obtained the data, wants the Government to be more open over crime committed by migrants
The Telegraph reported at the weekend that foreign nationals are three times more likely to be arrested for sexual offences as British citizens, and twice as likely to be arrested for all crimes.
Among those released from jail who reoffended is Ernesto Elliott, a Jamaican who had been jailed for knife crime but avoided deportation. He appealed against his removal, then murdered a 35-year-old man in a knife fight in June 2021.
A second Jamaican – drug dealer Lloyd Byfield, 48 – who avoided deportation from Britain for a violent crime went on to kill a young woman in her own home.
Lloyd Byfield is now serving life with a minimum of 26 years for murdering a young woman – PA/Metropolitan Police
The Tories have called for a “zero tolerance” approach to deporting foreign offenders. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has also proposed legislation that would require ministers to present an annual report to Parliament each year detailing the nationality, visa and asylum status of every convicted offender.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said on Wednesday that foreign offenders who committed crimes in the UK “should expect the full force of the law and will be removed at the earliest possible opportunity”.
He added: “We have been ramping up removals: 2,000 people have been removed since July, a 20 per cent increase on the same point last year.”
However, even when the Home Office tries to deport jailed foreign offenders, they can successfully appeal against their removal.
Grooming gang leader still in Rochdale
Belgian-born William George, 28, who was convicted of the manslaughter of an 18-year-old in Manchester, avoided deportation under pre-Brexit directives that EU nationals who have lived in the UK for an extended time can only be deported on “imperative grounds of public security”.
And a Zimbabwean jailed for more than five years for killing a man in a car crash was allowed to live in the UK by claiming ECHR rights to a family life after it was discovered he had a child in Britain.
It has also emerged Qari Abdul Rauf, the ringleader of an Asian grooming gang in Rochdale, is still living in the town where he committed his crimes – almost a decade after he was released from jail and told he would be deported. He has thwarted removal by renouncing his Pakistani citizenship.
An MoJ spokesman said: “It costs tens of thousands to hold an offender in prison and since the new Government came into power, we have returned 14 per cent more foreign national offenders than in the same period last year.
“As the public would rightly expect, we continue to work closely with the Home Office to deport more foreign national offenders, keeping our streets safe and saving taxpayers millions.”
The offenders:
Ernesto Elliott
The Jamaican criminal, jailed for knife crime, went on to murder a 35-year-old man in a knife fight after being released from prison.
Elliott was due to be on a deportation flight on Dec 2 2020 after being convicted of knife crime, but he and 22 other serious criminals submitted last-minute appeals – including human rights claims – which led to them avoiding deportation to Jamaica.
The 23 criminals had been sentenced to a combined 156 years in jail. Their appeals came just days after 60 celebrities, authors, and other public figures signed an open letter opposing the flight.
Elliott was jailed for at least 26 years for the murder, which happened in a bloody eight-minute confrontation in a street fight in Greenwich, south-east London. Onlookers suffered “significant trauma”, police said
Dorian Puka
The twice-deported Albanian convicted burglar, who cannot be deported now because he is claiming asylum, taunted the Home Office by posting Happy New Year messages from a London nightclub. Puka, 28, posted a picture of himself celebrating the new year in a nightclub while smoking a shisha pipe alongside a belly dancer.
Lloyd Byfield
A Jamaican drug dealer who evaded deportation from Britain for a violent crime went on to kill a young woman in her own home. Lloyd Byfield, 48, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 26 years as a judge expressed concern that failure to remove him from Britain had left him free to kill an innocent woman.
Maurico Myftaraj
The Albanian gangster sneaked back into the UK after deportation and lived freely for years until he was finally caught with two loaded guns and cannabis worth £70,000 in a police raid on his home. Myftaraj was jailed for 15 years. He had been deported in 2015 and banned from returning but he came back illegally and continued his involvement in serious and organised crime.
Flogert Farruku
Farruku, who was found acting as a “gardener” at a £60,000 cannabis farm, had previously been deported for the same offence. He has now been jailed once more, and again faces deportation upon his release.
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