MORE than a hundred foreign prisoners were returned to secure jails yesterday after 11 offenders facing deportation walked out of an open prison and disappeared.

The disappearance of the foreign national prisoners from Ford open jail in West Sussex forced the Prison Service to take emergency action. Nine of the men simply walked out of the prison over the past week.

A Jamaican drug dealer, Ransford James Baker, facing deportation, is among the 11 who have disappeared from the jail this month. Others include men serving sentences for fraud.

One foreign prisoner walked out of the jail in April and has not been recaptured.

In a separate move, all foreign prisoners serving life sentences who were in open prisons have been returned to closed jails.

A total of 141 foreign prisoners were driven away from Ford prison and were last night behind bars in closed jails.

The operation to move the inmates began during Thursday night when the Prison Service, backed by the police, sealed off the jail.

But 257 foreign prisoners, including three women, remain in other open jails despite all being liable to deportation at the end of their sentence.

The Prison Service said: “An operation has been undertaken to remove all foreign national prisoners from Ford open prison. This is in order to review their security category due to the current high abscond level at Ford amongst this group of prisoners.”

Opposition MPs protested that foreign prisoners had been allowed to remain in open jails after the Government recently announced its intention to deport most of them.

The Prison Service said that there were no plans to move foreign prisoners held in other open jails as none had absconded this month. Those serving life sentences are now back in closed jails.

Phil Wheatley, head of the Prison Service, said that many more British citizens had absconded this year than foreign citizens. He said: “The rate of escape is mostly made up of English prisoners. The rate of escape is roughly two per week, or slightly less than that.”

“Ford Prison has seen a sudden surge of absconding from foreign nationals. The other prisons where we are holding foreign nationals have not seen any abscond. So it is a Ford problem, and we are dealing with it decisively.”

Mr Wheatley added: “We’ve also got to prepare long-term prisoners for release. If we do not prepare them for release, via lower security, we put the public at greater risk.”

The Prison Service cannot discriminate against prisoners simply on the ground that they are foreigners. If they are assessed as eligible for open conditions as part of preparation for eventual release they are moved to an open jail if accommodation is available.

Nick Clegg, for the Lib Dems, said: “Foreign prisoners, who we had been assured were under lock and key, have simply walked off. Given the Government’s well-publicised drive to deport foreign prisoners, this state of affairs could surely have been predicted.” Nick Herbert, a Conservative spokesman, said: “It seems extraordinary that prisoners awaiting deportation, or who are likely to be deported, should be held in an open prison when they have little incentive to remain in custody.”

It has emerged that convicts from abroad who have stayed in Britain without being considered for deportation have been given passports. They are eligible for citizenship if the offence is spent or a “clear” period has elapsed: the “clear” period for a person serving 15 years or more is the length of the term.

Latest government figures show that one in eight inmates in jails in England and Wales is a foreign national. The increase is exacerbating overcrowding.

STATES OF ORIGIN

Jamaica 1,633
Nigeria 859
Irish Republic 727
Pakistan 416
Turkey 292
Somalia 284
India 253
Iraq 240
Ghana 212
China 201

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