The number of foreign criminals remaining in the country after being released from jail has risen by almost a fifth, according to Home Office figures.
There are 4,903 immigrants who have served their jail sentences but have not been deported, an increase of 18 per cent from the 4,153 recorded a year ago, the figures show.
Of those freed but not yet deported, a third, or 1,634, have been at liberty for more than five years.
In the last three months of 2014, 312 foreign criminals who could have been deported were released into the community. Only five were deported immediately, with a further 196 still being “caseworked”, 62 had legal issues, while 32 had “removal issues”, according to The Mail on Sunday.
Overall, there were 570 foreign offenders resisting removal from Britain at the end of last year, of whom 43 were claiming asylum, 201 legally appealing against deportation and nine had children or family members in the UK.
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Another six escaped being deported because of fears that they would suffer torture or persecution in their homeland. Five had medical conditions that kept them in the UK and nine could not be deported because officials did not know to which country they should be returned. In more than 200 cases the offenders did not have a passport and needed an emergency travel document from their home country’s embassy before they could leave.
A Home Office spokeswoman said that more than 5,000 foreign offenders had been removed in 2013-14, and more than 23,000 since 2010.
She added: “Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes in the UK should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.
“In the vast majority of cases where foreign criminals have been released into the community and absconded their release was ordered by an immigration judge, despite our strenuous objections.”