Foreign nationals now make up almost 13 per cent of British prison places. Yes, you read that right – 13 per cent.
According to new Ministry of Justice statistics, the total prison population as of June 2025 stood at 87,334. Of that, a staggering 11,153 inmates are foreign nationals, assuming that those without their nationality recorded are highly unlikely to be British citizens.
That’s the equivalent of locking up the entire population of a small town – only they’re not our citizens. They’re criminals from abroad, the majority of whom have no business being here. The worst offenders? Albanians lead the list at 1,193, followed by Polish nationals at 759 and Romanians at 716.
We’re told we don’t have enough prison places. We’re told that police, courts, and probation services are stretched beyond capacity.
But while British taxpayers are being failed by a collapsing and increasingly two-tier justice system, they’re also being forced to bankroll bed and board for thousands of foreign criminals.
New TPA analysis found that this could be costing taxpayers as much as £600million. And for what? To house people who shouldn’t even be in the country.
What’s worse is that this wasn’t always the case. Back in the early to mid-2010s, deporting foreign offenders was something that actually happened – consistently.
We have all been sold a lie about deporting foreign criminals. I have the numbers to prove it - William Yarwood | Getty Images
According to the Migration Observatory, in 2015 alone, the government enforceably removed 12,921 foreign nationals, with an additional 30,210 leaving either independently or voluntarily.
That’s over 43,000 foreign nationals out of the country in one year. This is before the number of illegal immigrants really surged, as well.
Fast forward to 2023, and that number has collapsed to just 22,807. That’s barely half the peak. And while some of these will have been criminals, many were not. The days of systematically removing foreign offenders from our shores appear to be over.
So what changed? The same old excuses: it’s too expensive, too bureaucratic, too risky, and some even say it’s not compassionate nor compliant with ‘international law’.
But let’s look at the numbers. A Home Office economic impact assessment of the last Conservative government’s Illegal Migration Bill suggested it would cost £160,000 to remove one illegal migrant to Rwanda. But that scheme was never designed for efficiency – it was a headline grabber, not a serious plan.
In reality, the cost of deporting a foreign inmate is much lower. The Migration Observatory highlights that an enforced return costs around £15,000, while a voluntary return can cost as little as £1,000.
So if every one of the over 11,000 foreign inmates were forcibly deported, it would cost just over £167million, which is a fraction of the £600million we’re currently spending to keep them here.
This isn’t just about money, though the economics speak for themselves; it’s about basic justice and public safety. And more fundamentally, it’s about restoring the trust that has been broken time and time again on immigration and crime. Our government should show that it is on the side of the law-abiding British taxpayers.
Because why should a young British couple struggling to pay rent and suffering under a record-high tax burden have to foot the bill for a Romanian burglar who’s racking up tens of thousands in prison costs? Why should a hard-working single mum be paying for an Albanian gang member’s three square meals a day?
Deporting these criminals isn’t just sensible - it’s a moral duty. The government owes it to the victims, owes it to the public, and they owe it to the taxpayers who are being asked to subsidise the very people making their communities less safe and inhospitable.
It’s time to restore a policy of automatic deportation for all foreign criminals with a custodial sentence.
The only feasible exception would be if there is an unambiguous national security case for keeping them here, like a serious terrorist whom we may prefer to be locked in a secure facility where we can watch them.
Otherwise, commit a serious crime on our soil, and you don’t just lose your liberty – you lose your right to remain here, period. No appeals, no loopholes, no second chances.
And we must go even further. Bilateral agreements with high-offender nations like Albania, Poland and Romania should include hard deadlines and penalties for delays in accepting returns.
If these governments drag their feet, the government should withhold foreign aid or freeze visa allocations entirely until they comply.
We’re under no obligation to tolerate a revolving door of foreign criminality while being lectured by international bodies that don’t bear the cost and care more about virtue signalling than they do the safety of the British people.
If Britain wants to get serious about fixing its prison crisis and restoring faith in the system, this is where it must start. No more dithering, no more delay: deport them and don’t let them back in - ever.
Britain is not a bed and breakfast for Albanian drug dealers, Romanian thieves or Pakistani sex offenders. This is our country and we deserve for it to be safe and for our taxes to go towards things that improve our lives, not make the lives of foreign inmates more comfortable.