Justice Secretary vows to send foreign criminals ‘packing’ when they are jailed
Foreign criminals will be sent “packing”, deported immediately when they receive a custodial sentence, the Justice Secretary has pledged.
Shabana Mahmood has proposed a law change, which could save taxpayers an average £54,000 per year, per prison place.
The changes would apply to prisoners serving fixed-term “determinate” sentences, and authorities would retain their power not to deport a criminal but instead keep them in custody, for example, if the offender was planning further crimes against the UK’s interests or national security.
“Our message is clear,” Ms Mahmood said.
“If you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing.”
Deportations
She also said: “Deportations are up under this Government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.”
Almost 5,200 foreign national offenders have been deported since July 2024, a 14% increase on the 12 months prior, according to the Government.
The Justice Secretary’s announcement follows a tweak in the law in June, expected to come into force in September, so prisoners face deportation 30% into their prison sentence rather than the current 50%.
The Government will need Parliament to greenlight its proposal to bring this down to 0%.
According to a Labour source, the previous Conservative government relied on prison transfer agreements with other countries to deport foreign national offenders, in deals which allow inmates to serve their custodial sentence in their “home” country.
This saw 945 prisoners sent to jails abroad between 2010 and 2023, equal to less than one-and-a-half criminals per week.
Foreign national offenders make up around 12% of the prison population.
‘Farce’
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “In Starmer’s topsy turvy world investors are fleeing the country in their droves while record numbers of violent and sexual offenders from abroad are put up in our prisons. It’s a farce.
“Yet again Starmer has refused to confront our broken human rights laws.
“He needs to grow a backbone and change them so we can actually deport these individuals.
“The safety of the British public is infinitely more important than the ‘rights’ of sick foreign criminals.
“If countries won’t take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid. His soft-touch approach isn’t working.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Were would she send asylum seekers? Where would she send illegal immigrants who have no identify papers? Sounds tough. But eventually it is useless distraction from fixing the real problems we all face here in GB. A real demise in our public services, cost of living crisis and on going austerity.
‘Foreign criminals will be sent “packing”, deported immediately when they receive a custodial sentence, the Justice Secretary has pledged.’
I can’t – especially in the current febrile climate of a seemingly significant chunk of public opinion – see that a lot of folk are likely to view merely deporting back to their home countries convicted criminals with foreign nationality as that much of a punishment.
Cannot believe this has taken so long and is even up for debate. If illegals / foreign criminals refuse to go back (or have accidentally mislaid their papers) then imprison them until they change their minds / miraculously find said papers. Labour needs to be robust.
So detain them beyond their sentence?
Remember their” Human Rights (ECHR) and all those lawyers earning fortunes.Sounds good ,but……….!!