More Foreign Offenders Dodging Deportation

Nearly 4,000 foreign criminals who should have been deported remain on the streets of Britain and a further 1,600 are still in UK detention despite finishing their sentences, inspectors say.

Chief inspector of the UK Border Agency (UKBA) John Vine said the number of foreign offenders who have not been kicked out has increased and he blames the interpretation of human rights rules.

"More must be done to actively manage these cases - they represent a growing cost to the taxpayer and cannot be ignored," he said.

He called on the agency to reduce the number of decisions overturned and said endless cycles of appeals are a waste of public money.

His intervention follows Home Secretary Theresa May's attack on human rights laws earlier this month. She said judges should not consider the right to a family life to be "absolute".

Mr Vine found 3,775 former prisoners who should have been told to leave the country were still living in the community.

Another 1,600 had completed their jail terms but were still being detained. He found 12 people were missing.

The chief inspector said there was a significant difference in the way the UKBA and the legal system interpreted the rules, with just 151 offenders being allowed to stay on their first attempt and 425 people having their rejection overturned by the courts.

The "overwhelming majority" of these appeals were on human rights grounds, he added.

Between 2007 and 2010, 20,360 foreign national prisoners were deported from the UK, 5,235 of them in 2010.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "This Government is tackling the problems of the past - we are starting the deportation process earlier and removing foreign criminals quicker than ever.

"Where a foreign criminal poses a risk to the public, we believe they should stay in detention.

"Foreign criminals in the community awaiting deportation will be subject to stringent reporting restrictions while every effort is made to remove them from the country."

He added: "For too long Article 8 has been used to place the family rights of foreign criminals above the rights of the British public, which is why we will change the immigration rules to ensure a better balance."

The Home Secretary's decision to use her speech to the Conservative party conference to criticise human rights laws was over-shadowed when she used an example of a man being granted leave to remain "because he had a pet cat".

Kenneth Clarke, the Justice Secretary, called his Cabinet colleague's remarks "laughable" but later said he regretted using "colourful language".