Number of foreign offenders still living freely in Britain despite being earmarked for deportation surges nearly 10 per cent to record high since Labour came to power - with early release scheme set to fuel crisis, experts warn

Published: 17:17, 19 August 2026 | Updated: 17:23, 19 August 2026 The number of foreign offenders still living in Britain despite being earmarked for deportation has surged nearly 10 per cent to a record high since Labour came to power, according to a study. Just over 18,000 foreign offenders subject to deportation were living freely within the community after serving their sentence when Labour won the election in July 2024. But this surged to nearly 20,000 during the first quarter of this year, according to the Migration Observatory findings. It dwarfs the number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) being returned to their country of origin, which by comparison was just 5,858 in the year to March 2026. Experts said the first early release scheme under Labour in September 2024, under which tens of thousands of offenders have been let out early to tackle prison overcrowding, had potentially fuelled a backlog. The number could surge further this October, from when the latest tranche of 5,000 offenders will be let out early under a similar scheme. At present, among them will be two of PC Andrew Harper’s killers – Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole – which has left Prime Minister Andy Burnham scrambling to find a way of blocking their early release. The number of foreign offenders still living in Britain despite being earmarked for deportation has surged nearly 10 per cent to a record high since Labour came to power, creating a fresh headache for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham  The Tories’ shadow home secretary Chris Philp said ‘Labour’s early release scheme has only added to this problem'  Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said things are more likely to get 'worse' than better  Under the law, the government must deport FNOs sentenced to 12 months or more in prison unless they successfully lodge a human rights or other appeal against removal. People with shorter sentences can be deported where the government deems it beneficial for the UK. But the study by the Migration Observatory, part of the University of Oxford, found that in July 2024 there were 18,070 FNOs living in the community after serving their sentence but who had been earmarked for deportation by the Home Office. During the first quarter of this year, it surged to 19,780. The Tories’ shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Nearly 20,000 foreign criminals are now living free in Britain’s communities, a record high, up almost ten per cent since Labour took office. ‘These are offenders the Government has marked for deportation, and Labour cannot get them out of the country. ‘Labour’s early release scheme has only added to this problem, and a further tranche of early releases later this year could give more foreign offenders their freedom. ‘The Conservative Party would deport all foreign criminals, enabled by leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and any other obligation that gets in the way.’ Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: ‘There is absolutely no evidence that this Government, this new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, has any more of a grip than his predecessor on the issue of controlling our borders, or more widely immigration given more boats keep on arriving. ‘I’m afraid at the moment all we can do is look forward to the problem getting worse, not better. ‘A small percentage of foreign offenders are being removed and it’s clear that early release schemes are making it worse.’ It is not known what the nationalities are of the nearly 20,000 earmarked for deportation, or what crimes they committed. They are usually released on immigration bail at the end of their sentence until their deportation can be arranged. The study also found that Albanians were nearly four times more likely to commit drug offences than any other foreign nationality. It found Albanians accounted for more than a quarter of (29 per cent) all drug offences foreigners were convicted of in 2024. The next largest foreign group were Poles (8 per cent). Overall, foreigners accounted for 16 per cent of all drug offences in 2024 (latest year available), despite making up less of the overall population (13.5 per cent). Overall, non-UK citizens made up 13.1 per cent of people given cautions or convictions in 2024, and 12.1 per cent of the prison population in June 2025. This was roughly in line with their share of the adult population. Dr Ben Brindle, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, and author of the report, said: ‘Even though the number of foreign national offenders (FNOs) being deported has increased, the number living in the community has also risen. ‘This suggests that removals have not kept pace with releases from prison. One challenge the government faces in deporting foreign offenders is that some countries do not cooperate with removals. ‘Countries are legally obliged to take back their own citizens, but this does not always happen in practice. ‘For example, 10 Iranian offenders were removed in the year ending March 2026, despite Iranians being among the most common foreign nationalities in England and Wales prisons.’ The Home Office was contacted for comment.