Home Office 'loses' hundreds of foreign criminals, new figures show

Hundreds of foreign criminals have disappeared off the Home Office’s radar after being released into the community, according to new figures.

Immigration authorities lost track of nearly 500 overseas nationals, including rapists and violent offenders, in just over two years.

They were facing removal from the UK after serving prison sentences for their crimes.

Data obtained by the Press Association following a Freedom of Information request show a total of 494 foreign national offenders (FNOs) ‘absconded’ while they were subject to deportation action from 2014 to the end of March 2016.

Many were later located but, as of last month, the whereabouts of more than 200 were still unknown – up to four years after contact with officials first ceased.

FNOs with convictions for violence, rape and other sexual crimes, fraud, money laundering, possession of weapons, burglary, forgery, motoring offences and handling stolen goods were among those unaccounted for as of last month.

If there is no immediate prospect of deportation or removal, a foreign criminal who has completed their custodial sentence can be released into the community.

They are required to report to the Home Office at set times and can be subject to bail conditions and electronic monitoring.

MOST POPULAR TODAY ON YAHOO

• Thousands of homes across UK left without water as thawing temperatures bursts pipes

• Jamie Oliver says poverty-stricken obese Brits eat badly because they think ‘in a different gear’

• Firefighters push stranded woman through snow and ice after electric wheelchair breaks down

• Falling into a black hole ‘would erase your past but give you infinite possible futures’

• UK far-right groups a growing threat as they prepare for ‘civil war’ between the West and Islam

Offenders are recorded as having absconded if their whereabouts are unknown and all procedures to re-establish contact have failed.

The Home Office refused to provide data on the nationalities of FNOs on the basis that disclosure could undermine agreements with other countries and prejudice the operation of immigration controls.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton, a member of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said: ‘It is extraordinary that the Home Office has allowed so many convicted foreign offenders who clearly have no place to remain in the UK to roam free to do as they wish whilst paperwork for their deportation is being sorted.

‘There should be a fast track deportation system from the prison to the plane with clear information sharing to make sure they do not gain entry again.’

He added: ’It is particularly unconvincing that the Home Office will not reveal the nationalities of those involved in the interests of not harming diplomatic relations with their home countries.

‘Surely we need to know where they are coming from to impress upon the authorities in those countries that they need to do a better job of looking after their own criminals rather than expecting us to play the generous host.’

The Home Office said more than 41,000 foreign offenders have been removed from the country since 2010, including a record 6,346 in 2016-17.

A spokeswoman said: ‘We’ve introduced measures in the Immigration Act 2016 which will mean that in the future, all non-detained foreign nationals subject to deportation proceedings or a deportation order will be electronically monitored.’