Key points
- Number of countries enrolled in initiative nearly triple to 23
- Scheme’s new countries include Canada, India and Australia
- Foreign national offenders make up around 12pc of UK’s prison population
ISLAMABAD: The UK government announced Sunday that it will expand a scheme forcing some foreign nationals to have appeals against convictions heard from abroad, to prevent them from delaying deportations.
The number of countries enrolled in the initiative will nearly triple to 23, with people from those nations now to be deported before they can appeal their convictions, it said.
In a separate announcement, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she intends to change the law so most foreign criminals will be deported immediately when they receive a prison sentence.
The scheme’s new countries, including Canada, India and Australia, bring the total to 23, with the Home Office saying more could follow in the future, according to the BBC.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says expansion of the scheme is to prevent foreign criminals from “exploiting our immigration system” and “fast-track” their removals.
12pc of prison population
Foreign national offenders make up around 12 per cent of the prison population, and the move could save money, according to Mahmood.
The steps come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labour government faces intense domestic pressure over immigration, as Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party surges in polls, according to AFP.
Farage, a longtime critic of immigration, has made the issue central to his party’s messaging, alongside a focus on crime.
Starmer’s government, which has slumped in popularity since taking power a year ago, has made a flurry of announcements on both policy areas in an apparent bid to counter Reform’s appeal.
The interior ministry said the expansion of the pre-appeal deportation scheme will increase “the UK’s ability to remove foreign criminals at the earliest opportunity”.
Overcrowded prisons
It will also ease pressure on overcrowded prisons, it noted.
The ministry added that almost 5,200 convicted criminals with foreign passports had been removed since July 2024, claiming that represented a 14 per cent year-on-year increase.
Under the “deport now appeal later” scheme, those convicted and whose human rights claims have been refused will have appeals heard from their home countries using video technology.
It has already been used for people from Tanzania, Finland, Estonia, Belize and four other countries but will be expanded to 15 additional countries.
They include European nations Latvia and Bulgaria, African countries Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia, Western allies Australia and Canada as well as India, Indonesia, Lebanon and Malaysia.
