Foreign prisoners should be deported
Once more unto the breach, dear friends: foreign criminals will be deported 'as soon as operationally possible' after their conviction. A review led by David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary, recommends that the law should be changed to allow ministers to speedily deport 'Foreign National Offenders' (FNOs) serving up to three years, rather than waiting until they have served half of their custodial sentences.
This sounds like an improvement on this especially egregious aspect of our broken criminal-justice system. At present, FNOs represent 12 per cent of all inmates in British prisons: a total of 10,800 prisoners, at an annual cost of £580 million. Any measure that brings down these alarming numbers is welcome. However, the review proposes that foreign criminals with longer sentences would still serve a third of their terms before deportation, while the most dangerous FNOs would only be deported after approval from the parole board.
A reason for mild scepticism about such proposals is that the human rights lawyers who dominate the legal system are disinclined to follow public opinion. Polls have long indicated that the vast majority of people want FNOs kicked out of the country as soon as possible. Yet successive governments have failed to solve the problem and the numbers keep rising.
Admittedly, the Prime Minister has lately undergone something of a Damascene conversion over immigration. It may be that the former DPP is about to reinvent himself as a hardliner on law and order. Miracles will never cease.
But even if a new, draconian Sir Keir does indeed promise a crackdown on foreign criminals, the devil will be in the detail. The Gauke review suggests that deported FNOs who sneak back into the UK would be 'immediately jailed'. How easy would such a cat-and-mouse game be in practice?
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