Indians in British jails

350 Indians in British jails Times of India: 26 Dec 2008, 2246 hrs IST, PTI

LONDON: The number of Indians jailed in Britain has risen by 35 per cent since September 2005 with about 350 presently serving their terms in various prisons across the country, Ministry of Justice has said. Indian prisoners in British jails numbered 350 in September this year, compared with 259 in September 2005, the ministry informed MPs in a written reply. The number of foreign national prisoners has increased to 11,168 by September this year - an increase of 11 per cent - from 10,265 foreign nationals in February 2006. The number of Pakistani nationals was 406. Vietnam and Poland alone account for more than half of this increase. The number of prisoners from Vietnam has risen by 286 per cent, to 460 prisoners while the number from Poland by 192 per cent, to 452 prisoners. This increase is despite introduction of the Facilitated Returns Scheme and the extension of the Early Removal Scheme by September 2008. In 2007, 7,400 foreign prisoners were released from jails in England and Wales, including those who were deported later. The Conservative party said that despite Prime Minister Gordon Brown's repeated pledge that foreign nationals who commit crimes in Britain "will be deported" and "will pay the price", thousands of foreign national prisoners were not only being freed, but were actually being released early, having served less than half of their sentence. Criticising the Labour government for its handling of the issue, Shadow Justice Secretary, Nick Herbert, said: "The Government want to create the impression that they were successfully deporting foreign national criminals, but the truth is that for every three prisoners they remove, two more are released onto the streets."