Deporting a backlog of foreign criminals will take decades at current rates for certain nationalities, a devastating new analysis shows.
A wide range of convicted criminals – particularly those from African, Middle Eastern and Caribbean nations – are being removed from Britain at a glacial pace.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who compiled the analysis of government data, said it was ‘totally unacceptable’ that some nationalities are not being deported.
There are 145 Eritrean criminals in jail here, according to latest data, but in the 12 months to June only two were removed.
It means the Government will take 73 years to deport the total number at current rates, according to the new research.
Similarly, despite the Iranian jail population in England and Wales standing at 279 only six were deported in the last year – meaning the total would take 47 years to remove.
For the 338 Jamaican prisoners it would take 15 years to kick them all out, after just 23 were deported in the year to June, while for Somalis it would take 22 years.
The true rates of removal will be even lower than those set out in the analysis, seen exclusively by the Daily Mail.
Ernesto Elliott, right, killed Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago, on the left, in a knife fight after dodging deportation to Jamaica
Elliott was jailed for at least 26 years for murder in 2023
It only covers foreign offenders who are in jail and not the 19,390 who are on the streets of Britain ‘awaiting deportation’, which are not broken down by nationality.
Many deportation cases will have been blocked by spurious human rights claims.
Prime Minister and former human rights barrister Sir Keir Starmer and his Attorney General Lord Hermer have both insisted Britain will never leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which is enshrined in domestic law in the Human Rights Act.
And in a further indication of Labour’s resistance to boosting deportation rates, the PM and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood signed an open letter in 2020 which said ‘all further deportations must be stopped’ in the wake of Left-wing outrage over Home Office removals flights to Jamaica.
Tory frontbencher Mr Philp said the new analysis showed Labour was ‘more interested in the supposed human rights of criminals than in protecting the British public’.
‘These numbers show that for some African, Middle Eastern and Caribbean nationalities the Government just doesn’t bother to deport dangerous criminals,’ he said.
‘It is totally unacceptable that this growing backlog of Jamaican, Somali or Iranian criminals doesn’t get removed.
‘Our law says they should be deported, but the government is too weak to do it and the criminals and their activist lawyers twist human rights laws to stay in the UK.’
Elliott was one of 23 criminals who avoided deportation to Jamaica in 2020
‘The definition of human rights has now lost all touch with reality and the madness has to end.
‘The Human Rights Act needs to be binned when it comes to immigration matters.
‘I want to see every single foreign criminal kicked out of our country.
‘But this government is too weak to do it.’
The new analysis also shows only one national from the Democratic Republic of Congo had been deported in the 12 months to June, meaning it would take 68 years to remove all those still in jail here at current rates.
It would also take 35 years to remove all the 104 Syrians in prison, and 25 years to remove all Moroccans, the Tory study suggested.
Mr Philp said: ‘Some of these foreign criminals have then gone on to commit more offences in the UK – including rape and murder.’
The Daily Mail revealed in 2023 how a Jamaican criminal who avoided deportation following legal challenges backed by Labour MPs and a host of celebrities went on to commit murder.
Ernesto Elliott, who already had 17 convictions in the UK, was due to be aboard a Home Office charter flight in December 2020, but dodged efforts to remove him thanks to last-minute human rights appeals.
In June 2021 – six months after he was supposed to have been removed from Britain – Elliott murdered a 35-year-old man in a horrific knife fight, which was captured on video by horrified onlookers.
Elliott was later jailed for at least 26 years for murder.
There are 10,800 foreign nationals in jail in England and Wales, according to latest figures, meaning about one in eight prisoners is from overseas.
Although the total number of foreign offenders removed in the year to June rose to 5,265, from 4,532 the previous year, the largest increases were among eastern European offenders.
Albanians made up 1,550 of the total while 1,009 Romanians were also removed.
A Labour source said: ‘This is laughable from the Tories.
‘This Labour Government is deporting more foreign criminals than them.
‘And we will introduce domestic legislation to stop migrants using our laws against us.
‘The Tories had 14 years to do something about this, and what reform did they put forward? Sod all.’
Earlier this month, just days after her appointment as Home Secretary, Ms Mahmood claimed she had ‘reached an agreement’ with key partners, including the U.S., to increase the number of deportations.
She said countries which refuse to ‘play ball’ and take back their migrants could face curtailed access to visas.
The Home Secretary announced the proposals after a summit with her counterparts from the ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence-sharing alliance.
However, it later emerged that restrictions on visas would only be imposed by Britain – and not by the U.S. and other major economies which signed the deal.
The Home Office suggested the agreement would lead to ‘much closer working’ but was unable to say what the deal would mean in practice.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘When foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them.
‘This government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.
‘We are reviewing the domestic application of the European Convention to change the way in which Article 8 is applied in immigration cases.’
