Migrant charities and MPs have accused Yvette Cooper of pandering to racism and stoking the possibility of riots after the Home Office said it would publish the nationalities of foreign criminals in the UK for the first time.
The home secretary has ordered officials to publish the data, including the crimes that have been committed, by the end of the year. It is expected to lead to “league tables” of foreign nationals showing which nationalities are more associated with particular crimes.
The move comes as Labour attempts to quell the threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party at next week’s local elections.
Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of the Migrants’ Rights Network, said publicising foreign national offenders’ nationalities was a “blatant exercise in scapegoating”.
She said: “The criminal justice system, policing and immigration systems are infamously racist and disproportionately impact racialised people.
“Attempts to manufacture a link between nationalities and criminality only serves to deepen prejudice and discrimination towards migrants from certain countries. Linking the nationality, ethnicity and immigration status with crime is nothing more than dog-whistle politics, which is incredibly irresponsible in the aftermath of last summer’s racist riots.”
James Wilson, the director of Detention Action, which supports people in immigration detention, said the move risked increasing the possibility of riots. He said: “The dangers are very clear. Less than a year after the anti-asylum riots, the government risks feeding further division, dehumanisation and prejudice in our communities.”
Clive Lewis was one of three Labour MPs who told the Guardian that the move risked increasing community tensions. The MP for Norwich South and former shadow defence secretary said: “People deserve transparency, but that means the full picture – not just stats that single out foreign nationals without showing how they compare to everyone else.
“Without that context, it’s too easy for the media and politicians to twist the story and stir up hate. In a time when debate around migration is so often driven by fear and headlines, we need honest, level-headed conversations that focus on facts and real solutions – not scapegoats.”
Another Labour veteran said: “This is pandering to Farage, plain and simple. We need to fight prejudice not reinforce it.”
There were more than 19,000 foreign offenders awaiting deportation at the end of last year, up from almost 18,000 when the Conservatives left office, figures show.
In July and August last year, there was a wave of anti-immigration demonstrations and riots across the UK. Some targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, driven in part by false claims that spread on social media platforms relating to the killing of three children in Southport.
A Home Office source said the government wanted the public to be better informed about foreign criminals, including where they came from.
The Tories said Tuesday’s commitment showed Labour had “buckled” after being put under pressure to disclose the figures.
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, last month demanded that nationality, immigration and visa status should be recorded and released whenever a criminal was convicted. Jenrick submitted an amendment to the government’s criminal justice bill, saying the data would help to inform deportation and visa policies.
In response, government sources say the move has been possible only because Cooper ordered Home Office statisticians to overhaul their systems.
Foreign nationals sentenced to 12 months or more in prison are subject to automatic deportation. The home secretary has the power to deport people who receive a shorter sentence if she decides their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
Home Office sources blame the increase in the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation on early releases on prison overcrowding, instability in some countries, making deportations difficult, and a litany of appeals against deportation on human rights grounds. The rise has come despite more offenders being deported since Labour came to power.
Home Office figures are expected to show that the main three nationalities for foreign criminals living in the community are Albanians, Romanians and Poles. It is understood their most common offences were the production of drugs, theft and robbery, and acts of violent assault.
Government sources say the change is only happening because ministers have addressed an issue that their Conservative predecessors ignored.
A Home Office source said: “Not only are we deporting foreign criminals at a rate never seen when Chris Philp and Robert Jenrick were in charge at the Home Office, but we will also be publishing far more information about that cohort of offenders than the Tories ever did.
“We want to ensure the public is kept better informed about the number of foreign criminals awaiting deportation, where they are from and the crimes they have committed.”
A series of policies announced by the Home Office in recent weeks have attempted to harden the government’s position on immigration amid a surge in support for Reform.
In February, it emerged that guidance for staff assessing people who apply for naturalisation in the UK said applicants who had “made a dangerous journey will normally be refused citizenship”.
Last week, there was news that the British and French governments were involved in early talks about a returns agreement that would involve the two countries exchanging people seeking asylum.
Welcoming the latest development, Jenrick said: “We will finally see the hard reality that mass migration is fuelling crime across our country. Frankly, the public deserved to know this long ago.”
