Foreign Sex Violent Offenders Reach Record High UK Prisons

The number of foreign nationals imprisoned in England and Wales for violent and sexual offences has reached record levels, with 1,731 foreign sex offenders and 3,250 violent foreign inmates currently in custody. This represents a nearly 10 percent increase in foreign sex offenders over the past year, a rise significantly higher than that of British offenders, and accounts for 12 percent of the total prison population of 87,334. Albanians constitute the largest group of foreign sex offenders, followed by Poles, Romanians, and others, while Syrians have seen the largest rise in imprisonment rates. The escalating costs of housing these foreign prisoners exceed £360 million annually, prompting calls from Conservative politicians, such as Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, for immediate deportation of foreign offenders and suspension of visas and aid to countries refusing to repatriate their nationals. Labour representatives counter that deportations have increased under the current government and that new laws are expediting the process. Experts attribute the rise in foreign prisoners partly to record immigration since 2020 and judicial reluctance to grant bail to foreign defendants due to concerns over flight risk, resulting in more foreign nationals held on remand.