FOREIGN criminals are to be deported immediately under a change in the law, which could save UK taxpayers almost £600million per year.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is introducing powers to quickly send crooks back to their home countries.
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One in eight prisoners in England and Wales is foreign-born — costing an estimated £580million per year.
Criminals including rapists, burglars and drug dealers who have been handed custodial sentences will face immediate deportation.
Offenders who are deported are then banned from re-entering the UK.
Foreign-born terrorists, murderers and others serving life sentences will have to complete their prison sentence before being considered for deportation.
Ms Mahmood told The Sun on Sunday: “My message to foreign criminals is clear: “Break Britain’s laws and you’ll be sent packing in record time.
“I know The Sun on Sunday readers agree — those who have abused this country’s proud hospitality should not expect free bed and board at the taxpayer’s expense.
“So today, I’m announcing immediate deportation after sentencing.
“These new powers mean removal and bans from our shores — keeping victims and the public safe.
“This will ramp up removals of foreign offenders jamming up our jails, with deportations already up 14 per cent on the same time last year.
“Last year we inherited a criminal justice system that was close to collapse.
“This Government will never let that happen.”
An existing tweak in the law, expected to come into force next month, will see foreign prisoners face deportation 30 per cent into their term rather than the current 50 per cent.
But under the latest change — set to come into force in the New Year — they will be sent straight home.
The measure will apply to all foreigners in custody, and those newly sentenced.
The number of foreign- national offenders in UK jails is now higher than at any point since 2013.
There were 10,722 foreign criminals and suspects occupying UK prison cells at the end of June — including 1,731 for sexual offences.
Taxpayers fork out £54,000 per year for each place.
Critics have raised concerns that prisoners might try to use human rights laws to avoid deportations.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Yet again Keir Starmer has refused to confront our broken human rights laws.
“He needs to grow a backbone and change them so we can actually deport these individuals.
“The safety of the British public is infinitely more important than the ‘rights’ of foreign criminals.
“If countries won’t take back their nationals, Starmer should suspend visas and foreign aid.”
Government sources pointed to plans to toughen the use of Article 8, the right to a family life, from the European Convention on Human Rights.
How many are there?
THERE were 10,772 foreign nationals in custody on June 30, 2025, the latest data from the Ministry Of Justice shows.
They were 12 percent of the total prison population of 87,334.
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How would it work?
- A FOREIGN national is sentenced to custody in Britain.
- From the moment they are sentenced, the UK starts work on their deportation.
- As soon as the deportation order is served, they are out of the country. At present, there is another step at stage two where they must serve half of their sentence in one of our prisons first.
Hotel crime spree
By Thomas Godfrey
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A DOZEN migrants living at the Heathrow DoubleTree hotel have been charged with more than 20 serious offences in the past six months.
We told last Sunday how the four-star, taxpayer-funded hotel covered up signs with a tarpaulin when migrants moved in last November.
Now we can reveal that since February 12 asylum seekers at the 200-room hotel have been in court accused of theft, beating up police officers, making threats and having drugs.
Those jailed include Sadal Johri, 29, who stole a Samsung phone from a train passenger at King’s Cross station in Central London in May.
JPs at Westminster magistrates’ court said Johri was “operating as a professional criminal”.
Tesfit Bayu, 27, was given a 30-week suspended term for assaulting a man in Islington, North London.
Another awaiting trial for persistent shoplifting was barred from entering every TKMaxx store in the country.
One local said: “The scale of crime going on is shocking.”
Tory Robert Jenrick said: “Starmer needs to wake up to the fact illegal migration is fuelling crime.”
No10 said: “We have removed more than 35,000 people with no right to be here in our first year.”
