Cameron accused of letting off foreign suspects arrested in London - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

British Prime Minister David Cameron has been accused of failure to deport foreign criminals, even as arrests of non-British suspects soar. New figures showing that 200 foreign suspects are arrested every day in London has put paid to false claims by Cameron that swift action was being taken to deport offenders.

A study shows that the country’s largest police force arrests 200 people who do not hold a British passport every day, a rise of 23 percent in the past two years. In contrast, the number of foreign criminals deported has fallen by 13 percent since the Tory-led coalition came to power. According to the Mirror, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Chris Bryant attacked the government’s record, saying: “Anyone coming here should stick by the rules or face the consequences. It’s successful prosecutions and swift deportations that count”. “Depressingly, the Tories are now removing fewer foreign offenders than before, and more are absconding. Yet again they’re letting down the police and the public,” Bryant added.

According to the report, a Freedom of Information request to London’s Metropolitan Police revealed that they held more than 72,500 non-British nationality suspects last year. The figure is almost 14,000 more than the 58,870 foreign nationals arrested between March 2009 and April 2010, the month before Cameron and the Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg formed the Coalition. Figures for the first half of this year are not available, but sources said that there are likely to have been even fewer deportations, the report said. Among those arrested in London last year, 79 were held for murder, 708 for rape, 1,863 for robbery, 2,801 for fraud and 2,489 for burglary.