Tens Of Thousands of Foreign Criminals Avoid Deportation by Lying to Police

Source: Breibart, 14/10/2016

Tens of thousands of illegal migrants were allowed to stay in the
country after telling police that they were British or EU citizens, a
report has found. In response, MPs have accused the police of "taking
their eye off the ball" on immigration.


The report, by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and
Immigration found that in some areas across the country, police
officers were taking migrants at their word regarding their right to
remain in the country, rather than referring them to the Home Office
for checks on their eligibility to stay in the UK as protocol
demands.


According to police figures, between 185,000 and 193,000 foreign
nationals were arrested by police forces in the UK between 1 April
2014 and 31 March 2015, of whom about a third were arrested by the
Metropolitan Police Force, which covers London.


In 2012 police procedures on the arrest of foreigners were
changed.

Previously officers could phone the Home Office
for an immigration status check on those detained, but since that date
officers have been expected to refer the detained person to the Home
Office Command and Control Unit (CCU) or an embedded Immigration
Officer (IO) for processing.


This does not appear to be happening in a significant number of
cases.


"[The] inspection found that not all foreign nationals arrested in the
UK by the police were referred to the Home Office for an immigration
status check. It was not possible to say how many arrested foreign
nationals went unchecked," the report noted, adding: "Home Office data
indicated that the level of referrals varied across the UK."


Whereas Met officers were believed to be referring all or nearly all
foreign detainees to the CCU, officers with the West Midlands were
found not to be referring a significant number of people.


The report found: "When embedded IOs were able to check lists of
people in custody, they routinely found that 5-10 percent of the
foreign nationals detained had not been referred. Both EEA nationals
and those self-declaring as UK citizens were likely to be
missed.


"IOs were reliant on police custody sergeants to give them access to
the custody database to ensure that all foreign nationals were
identified and referred for a status check, but when the custody suite
was busy this was not always possible."


Officers claimed in some cases not to be aware of the need to refer
people to the CCU or "might assume that the offender was unlikely to
have committed an actionable immigration offence, so would not see any
advantage in involving immigration officers," the report found.


But in other cases, migrants were simply able to claim that they had a
right to stay – and were believed.


"Not all foreign nationals arrested by the police are identified as
such," the report states. "Some misrepresent themselves as UK citizens
or as nationals of a country within the European Economic Area (EEA),
with the hope of evading immigration checks. Meanwhile, police are
less likely to refer genuine EEA nationals for an immigration check,
assuming that they are free from immigration control in the UK.


The report did not look at the effectiveness of any enforcement action
taken by the Home Office after a foreign national had been referred by
the police, meaning that many more who were referred for action may
have escaped deportation nonetheless.


A Home Office spokesman said: "We are identifying and removing more
foreign criminals from the UK than ever before.


"As the Home Secretary recently announced, we are also introducing
stronger powers to deport EEA criminals and stop them returning to the
UK."


Conservative MP Tim Loughton, acting chairman of the Home Affairs
select committee, said: "At a time when the government is focused on
reduced immigration numbers some police forces appear to have taken
their eye off the ball when dealing with foreign nationals in the UK
who may be committing offences.


"It is all very well for Government to say they are deporting more
foreign national criminals than ever but they are starting from a very
low base."