Skyrocketing Incarceration of Foreign Sexual Offenders in English Prisons

Skyrocketing Incarceration of Foreign Sexual Offenders in English Prisons

As of August 1, 2025, the incarceration of overseas sex offenders in UK prisons is increasing at triple the rate of their local counterparts, according to recent data. The last decade saw the number of imprisoned foreign criminals for certain crimes doubling, sparking calls for more transparency regarding the statistics of migrant crime.

The UK government has disclosed fresh data on foreign individuals in the penal system, revealing not only the significant taxpayer cost of jailing criminals who ostensibly have no justification to be in the country, but also the accelerating trends. The data indicates that English and Welsh prisons are currently housing a record number of foreign sex offenders and violent criminals.

The past year saw a 10% rise in the number of migrant sex criminals, a three-fold increase compared to local offenders. Over the last decade, there has been a 26.6% surge in foreign sex criminals jailed, and the number of incarcerated Syrian criminals has climbed by 46% in just a year, as per an analysis by The Times.

The statistics are even more shocking for certain other offenses. The number of migrant criminals convicted for violent acts in English and Welsh prisons is at an all-time high, with the number of foreign prisoners jailed for violent crimes up by 51%, public order offenses up by 95%, and weapon possession up by a staggering 140% since 2015.

Foreign criminals are twice as likely to be serving time for drug offenses compared to Britons. The data also reveals pronounced disparities between native and migrant criminals, with the incidence of jailed migrants for robbery increasing around eight per cent in a year, whereas the number of Britons jailed for the same crime fell by over five per cent.

It is estimated that in some English prisons, foreigners constitute 85% of the total prison population. Similarly astounding data from Scotland suggests that over a quarter of all Eritreans residing in Scotland are in prison, based on an analysis by a Member of the Scottish Parliament.

In response to the data from England and Wales, Robert Bates, the research director of the Centre for Migration Control, blamed the government for the surge in migrant criminal figures and called for action. He urged the introduction of mandatory criminal record certificate checks for all visa applicants and the reinstatement of the nationality red list, which identified potential risk applications until 2020.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, demanded immediate deportation of these foreign offenders, suggesting a suspension of visas and aid until their home countries agree to take them back.

Political leader Nigel Farage also spoke out on the issue, calling for a national discussion about the correlation between immigration and crime. His Reform UK party is currently campaigning to combat lawlessness, warning that the UK is on the brink of societal collapse. Farage proposed measures to address the country’s crime crisis, including the termination of the de facto legalization of drug use and shoplifting, the construction of emergency prisons on military land, and the deportation of migrant criminals to foreign prisons with a lower incarceration cost, like El Salvador, as a deterrent.

Farage praised the “broken windows” approach that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani used to transform New York in the 1990s and suggested a similar approach for London.

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