Foreign Nationals Represent One-fifth of Criminals

Almost two hundred of the criminals that are missing after being recalled to jail for breaking the terms of their release are foreigners. This is an announcement that came from the Home Office earlier this week. Right now there are 954 offenders who have broken the terms of their release, but still remain on the run; 192 of these criminals are foreign nationals.

Of these 192 foreign nationals at large, 64 of them have been considered for deportation on their release. However, they were let go without authorities considering their cases at all. The chief executive of the UK Border Agency, Lin Homer, said that they are working closely with police and the probation service to return the foreign national prisoners back to prison. They have broken their license conditions and, thus, have broken the law.

Among the people that are still out on the run, 20 of them are murderers. One of which has been missing for over 25 years. Another 15 of these men are known rapists. Just the other night the Information Commissioner told police that the data protection laws did not prevent them from being able to release the details of all of the missing offenders.

Two different police forces, one from Wales and the other from England, said that data protection rules meant they would not publish the names or the pictures of these criminals. These police stations refuse to release the names of these men, in some circumstances, because of the Data Protection Act.

However, the Information Commissioner went on to say that the act does not at all require the names of convicts to be kept secret.