The government has announced that they will publish the nationalities of foreign criminals by the end of the year which will show the countries they are from, the crimes and those who are to be deported.
The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Phil said that Labour has “buckled” after being under pressure as the Tories have been hounding the government to disclose the data.
Data shows that at the end of 2024 19,244 foreign criminals are waiting to be deported, this has risen from 17,907 when the Tories lost the general election in July last year.
In the first nine months since Labour has been in office there has been a 16% increase in crime from foreign criminals, despite 3,594 offenders being deported.
James Wilson, the director of Detention Action, said, “It is unclear what the government hopes to achieve by publishing this data in this way, but the dangers are very clear.
“Less than a year after the anti-asylum riots, the government risks feeding further division, dehumanisation and prejudice in our communities. It is the role of the criminal justice system to prosecute individuals, not whole communities.”
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said, “We will finally see the hard reality that mass migration is fuelling crime across our country.”
A Home Office source said, “Not only are we deporting foreign criminals at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders than the Tories ever did.
“We want to ensure the public is kept better informed about the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation, where they are from and the crimes they have committed.”
