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Over 11,000 foreigners held in British jails

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, June 23, IRNA -- Justice Minister Crispin Blunt says he is pursuing “all possible options” to transfer foreign prisoners back to their homeland after revealing they make up 13 per cent inmates held in British jails.

“We currently hold 11,367 foreign national prisoners, of which 7,824 have been convicted and are serving sentences of imprisonment, and who could be considered for transfer to their own country,” Blunt said.

“Yet in 2009, with this large number of foreign national prisoners in our prisons, we managed to transfer 41 back to prisons in their own country,” he said in criticising the “feebleness” of the previous Labour government’s efforts.

The number has almost trebled in the past 15 years. In contrast, the government says it is aware of only “about 2,000” Britons held in overseas jails.

Around one third of foreign prisoners have been convicted of violence or sexual offences and almost one fifth of drug crimes, while nearly half come from 10 countries, led by Jamaica, Nigeria, Ireland, Vietnam and Poland.

Blunt said that there are a number of reasons why the figure of transfers has remained “stubbornly low,” particularly with vast majority in place for some time that require the consent of the prisoner.

But during a parliamentary debate on Tuesday, he said that in November 2009, the UK ratified the additional protocol to the Council of Europe convention which provides for compulsory transfer where a prisoner has been served with a deportation order.

Figures released by the Justice Ministry in April also showed that ethnic minorities are three times more likely to be in jail in Britain than their white counterparts.

Ethnic groups were found to make up 27 per cent of the 83,454 prison population in England and Wales at the end of June last year, compared to representing only around 9 per cent of the total population at the latest official census in 2001.

The highest disproportion is among Blacks, who comprise almost 15 per cent of those in jail, followed by 7 per cent of South Asians and 2 per cent of Chinese and other minorities.