UK Prime Minister David Cameron has made it a major campaign point in 2010 to reduce the number of foreign prisoners in UK prisons by deporting them in order to complete their sentence in their house countries.
Continue after the break.
You can find 534 Nigerians in UK prisons and more than half of these, according to UK media reports, could be deported under the new prisoner transfer agreement under discussion.
A major stumbling block to the deportation has been the indegent condition of prisons in the prisoners home countries, however the UK has promised £1 million to Nigeria to help improve its prisons.
UK Prisons Minister Jeremy Wright said, “I'm clear that more foreign prisoners must serve their sentences in their own countries. That is why we are now working together with the Nigerian Government on a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement to increase the number of prisoners who're transferred.
“Legislation allowing Nigeria to enter such an arrangement was passed earlier in 2010 by the Nigerian Parliament. We're now working together with them on the text of your final agreement.”
There are now 10,786 foreign prisoners in British jails, down just three per cent from the 11,135 incarcerated when David Cameron stumbled on power a lot more than three years ago.
In April, Cameron said, “When folks are delivered to prison in the UK we must do everything we can to make sure that if they're foreign nationals, they're sent back for their country to serve their sentence in a foreign prison.
“And I'm taking action in Government to say look we've strong relationships with all the countries where these folks come from. The majority are coming from Jamaica, many from Nigeria, many from other countries in Asia.
“We must be using all the influence we've to sign prisoner transfer agreements with those countries. Even when necessary frankly helping them to construct prisons in their own country so we can send the prisoners home.”
In the UK, it costs an estimated £119,000 (about N28m) to cater for a brand new prisoner and an annual average cost of £41,000 (about N10m) for each prisoner. Thus the deportation of prisoners rids the UK of criminals and is just a cost-saving measure in the facial skin of financial constraints.
Polish nationals constitute the highest foreign contingent in jails in England and Wales, with 829 currently behind bars. Irish criminals are second with 769, and Jamaica is third with 759. Romanians, Nigerians, Pakistanis, Indians, Lithuanians, Somalians and Vietnamese constitute the rest of the top ten.
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