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'Moral panic' over foreign nationals released from prison

By Liz Fekete

26 May 2006

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has lost his cabinet post after revelations that around 1,000 foreign nationals were released from prison following a prison sentence without being considered for deportation.

The revelations came on the eve of the May local elections where the British National Party (BNP) was standing 363 candidates. It was accompanied by a highly emotive media debate, in which ex-prisoners, because they were foreign nationals, were portrayed as if they were in some way more dangerous than ex-prisoners who were British. The media debate suggested that any foreign national who had committed an offence, whatever its nature, should be automatically deported.

New deportation measures announced

As the 'moral panic' intensified, Charles Clarke announced an emergency package of measures to reform the deportation laws. Prime minister Tony Blair announced that the system would be 'radically overhauled' so that every foreigner convicted of an imprisonable offence would be considered for deportation before the end of their sentence. But it soon became apparent that the proposal to introduce a clear legal presumption that deportation would follow release of foreign prisoners was not enforceable and Charles Clarke acknowledged that there would be circumstances in which automatic deportation was not possible. Under the proposals, the threshold for deportation from the current criteria of those serving sentences of twelve months or more has been widened to all imprisonable offences. It will apply not only to those sent to prison but those given a community punishment, if the offence is serious enough.

Legal challenges predicted

Critics pointed out that it is for the courts and not the government to decide whether deportation should be part of a sentence. Automatic deportation would not only deprive courts of their discretion but risk exposing lesser offenders to dangers out of all proportions to their offences. Clarke's plan could lead to the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of offences such as abusive words, common assault, evasion of fares, interfering with a vehicle, not paying a bill or poaching. And this could lead to challenges under the European Convention of Human Rights which gives absolute protection against suffering torture or human rights and a partial guarantee of the right to a family or private life.

Pandering to xenophobia

According to an editorial in the Independent, the deportation proposals were 'A quick fix that fans the flames of intolerance'. It berated the fact that on the eve of the local elections, fearing gains to the British National Party (BNP), the government responded to the 'pernicious association of crime, foreigners and illegal immigrants' with a 'shameless pandering to xenophobic prejudice'. After the new home secretary, John Reid, responded to the ongoing media onslaught by blaming staff and promising root and branch reform of the Home Office, a former home secretary, Jack Straw, added to this xenophobia. He claimed that the 'fundamental problem' with the Home Office was the people it dealt with rather than its staff. The Home Office's clients were 'dysfunctional individuals many of them: criminals, asylum seekers, people who do not wish to be subject to social control - the purpose of the Home Office'. Straw's comments were described as 'utterly pathetic and distasteful by Habib Rahman, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. Straw should be ashamed of himself for 'trying to shift the blame for the Home Office's poor performance by describing a marginalized and vulnerable group like asylum seekers as "dysfunctional customers".'

Independent, 4, 9.5.06; BBC News, 26.5.06

The Institute of Race Relations is precluded from expressing a corporate view: any opinions expressed are therefore those of the authors.

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