Escaped detention centre inmates on the run in the UK

It has been revealed in Parliament that over 100 overseas nationals are on the run across the United Kingdom after breaking out from immigration detention centres.

Since 2006 there have been some 150 escapes by inmates from secure detention centres in Britain that are charged with holding foreign national prisoners and illegal immigrants. Of this total number only 40 have so far been located by authorities and returned into custody.

The details of what is sure to become a talking point in the lead up to the election were uncovered during parliamentary question time after Conservative MP’s prompted Labour ministers into acknowledging the escapes. The figures were described as alarming by Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesperson who requested that the government provide a suitable explanation for the affair. Green added that it was galling to hear that UK immigration detention centres, already full of overseas national prisoners, were incapable of holding them and that they had not been recaptured. Green echoed the thoughts of many when he pondered how a supposedly secure institution could such a high rate of failure and demanded further inquiry into the matter.

According to official statistics from the Home Office figures there have been 148 cases of escape from immigration detention centres over the past four years while data for periods prior to 2006 is not available. 2007 was particularly grim with 90 escapes of which there are 71 people still unaccounted for. Results were far better last year when only four escapes were recorded with two recaptured.

Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, defended the role of the detention centres in the UK arguing that they have aided in the removal of 15,000 foreign national prisoners in the past three years and that the statistics indicate a strengthening of security leading to a significant decrease in escapes.