00:00Foreign prisoners are to be deported after serving just a fraction of their jail sentences
00:04in an effort to save the taxpayer millions of pounds.
00:08Now, the Labour government are allegedly bringing forward legislation
00:11that will allow overseas offenders to be removed after serving 30% of their sentence,
00:16down from the current 50%.
00:18But can they pull this off, or once again, will the lawyers be licking their lips to derail it?
00:24Well, let's speak to one of them now.
00:25That's the human rights lawyer, great friend of the show, David Hay.
00:28David, welcome to the show, looking dapper as ever.
00:32Look, of course, they need to do something about this.
00:35It's a huge problem.
00:37Around about 10,000 foreign nationals languishing in British jails
00:40and releasing criminals, murderers and burglars and rapists early to make way.
00:46But will this plan work?
00:49Good afternoon, Martin.
00:51I think, well, the first thing, I think, you know, is it actually a good idea?
00:54Because what type of message are we saying?
00:56You know, if we want to, if we have foreign criminals and they're convicted,
01:00then yes, they should be deported.
01:02Absolutely.
01:02But should we make it so that they're only serving 30%,
01:06maybe even the report says 10% potentially, of their sentence?
01:10What message is that sending to criminals around the world?
01:13If you ask me, it's sending a message to criminals around the world,
01:15come and base yourself in Britain.
01:17You'll only do 10% to 30% of a sentence.
01:20And even if you get deported, you can get back in on a boat.
01:23I mean, that's the message I see to some of the very despicable people around the world
01:28that would exploit that.
01:29So absolutely, let's deport the criminals and get that done quickly once their sentence is finished.
01:35But should we be giving them a get out of jail free card?
01:37I'm not quite sure.
01:39So, David, hey, I hadn't even thought about that.
01:41You're exactly right.
01:42Early release, straight back by a torturous route to Calais on the next dinghy to Britain, potentially.
01:48There's something else as well, isn't there?
01:50And there's a lot of these foreign criminals we can't even return
01:53because we don't have returns agreements with countries like Afghanistan,
01:57who are 22 times more likely to be sex offenders than Brits and Iraqis and Iranians.
02:03We can't send those people back anyway.
02:04So they're off radar.
02:06And we've seen even recently with countries where we do have returns deal, like Pakistan,
02:11they won't even take back rape gang rapists because they say we'll only do that if we open an airport route.
02:17David, I can see this being fraught with all kinds of complications.
02:22Absolutely.
02:22I mean, I think, you know, that's another of the things as well.
02:24And, you know, I've seen this many times before.
02:26When a prisoner is about to be deported, the Home Office either deliberately releases them
02:30or accidentally releases them pending deportation, expecting them to turn up to be deported.
02:36Of course, many don't do that.
02:37I wonder why.
02:38You know, so you're going to have people serving less of their sentence,
02:41being allowed into the community, not turning up for deportation.
02:44So I think you've got it's fraught with problems and it's not really being thought through.
02:48I mean, it sounds nice the way if they report it properly.
02:51Let's deport foreign criminals.
02:53But the reality, particularly, you know, when you look at the victims of crime in this country,
02:56if they see someone that's there, you know, they're a victim, someone's done terrible things to them
03:01and someone's effectively getting off scot-free and then can come back in here quite easily.
03:05That isn't the purpose of prison.
03:07And, David, that's before we even talk about the ECHR and the rights to a family life, no doubt.
03:15Some chicken nuggets will hold into view or some other idiotic, you know, piece of minutiae.
03:20And once again, the lawyers will step in and deny British law coming into effect anyway.
03:27No, 100%.
03:28I mean, this will get stuck in the court.
03:29So when we go through this process, you know, they've already served, let's say, 30% of their sentence.
03:33And then if the foreign criminal then tries to stop being deported, you know,
03:38you could end up with people serving only 30% and being allowed to stay.
03:42And that is, again, not the purpose of prison.
03:45So I think, you know, I think that the Labour Party on this needs to go back to the drawing board
03:49because I don't think this is going to achieve what they're – I mean, if they're aiming to reduce the numbers in prison,
03:55yes, the easy answer, let people go.
03:56But that's not the purpose of prison.
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