Foreign criminals costing £60m a year

A failure to deport foreign criminals is costing the criminal justice system £60 million a year, figures show.

One in three detainees held in immigration centres are now foreign offenders who have finished a jail term but have still not been removed from the country.

Figures show that 250 of these offenders completed their sentences over a year ago, yet they remain in the country waiting to be deported – all at the taxpayers expense.

Official statistics showed that an average of 1,250 overseas-born offenders are locked up in the facilities every month after completing their jail sentences.

Holding someone in such a facility costs £47,500 a year – some £10,000 more than a prison place – meaning the failure to quickly remove foreign offenders is costing the public some £59.3 million a year.

The revelation shatters Gordon Brown’s promise that every foreign prisoner would be sent home “as quickly as possible” after serving their sentence.

Last night, the Tories claimed the detention scandal was a huge waste of public money and was fuelling administrative chaos throughout the immigration system.

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “Every time this government makes a promise to improve the immigration system it lets us down. Gordon Brown promised automatic deportation of foreign criminals, but we have over a thousand of them locked up very expensively in centres not designed to hold hardened criminals, many for over a year.

“This is not only a waste of our money, it is dangerous. Riots and fires we’ve seen at detention centres in recent years often come about because criminals become the dominant group inside the centre.

“Ministers try to talk tough on immigration, but they are still, after all this time, acting weakly.”

Phil Woolas, the immigration minster, said: “We have made it clear that those who come to the UK and break the rules will not be tolerated. That is why we are removing more foreign criminals than ever before, including a record 5,400 in 2008. Detention is crucial in enforcing removal and protecting the public.”