Record numbers of foreign prisoners are being held in jails in England and Wales, according to government figures published yesterday.

One in eight of the male prison population and more than one in five of female inmates are foreigners either serving sentences or awaiting trial.

More than half the prisoners held in six jails are foreign and one prison has been converted to hold only foreigners. Yesterday’s figures show that almost 11,500 foreign citizens are in jails despite a drive by the Government to deport more of them when they end their sentence. A total of 4,200 foreign prisoners who were deported last year served their sentence and the Government has promised to increase the figure to 5,000 this year.

The latest figures, however, indicate how difficult it is proving to make serious inroads into reducing the overall number of foreign prisoners, despite offering reductions in sentences and financial packages to those willing to depart voluntarily.

It also emerged yesterday that a deal allowing for the automatic repatriation of EU prisoners to serve sentences in their home states will not come into effect until 2011 - two years later than originally expected. Two years ago Charles Clarke was ousted as Home Secretary over the scandal of more than 1,000 foreign prisoners who were released without being considered for deportation.

Andrew Neilson, assistant director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “Given that the Government lost a home secretary over this issue, you would expect the issue of foreigners in prison to be a priority. Yet while it is true the Prison Service has tightened up procedures on referring cases to the Border and Immigration Agency for possible deportation, these latest figures show the problem proves as intractable as ever.”

He added: “Those prisons that house more foreign nationals than UK citizens are fast becoming quasi-detention centres, yet with little of the specialist facilities and staff training required to cope with their needs.”

A total of 11,498 foreign prisoners were in jails at the end of last month, an increase of almost 400 in a year and more than two and a half times the number just before Labour came to power in 1997.

The Ministry of Justice figures show that 949 of the 4,505 women and 10,559 of the 78,789 men in prison are foreigners. They come from 173 countries, with the largest numbers being Nigerians, Jamaicans, Poles and Vietnamese.

Canterbury prison has been converted to hold only foreign inmates but several other prisons are now dominated by foreigners. More than half of the prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs, the Verne in Dorset, Pentonville, Morton Hall, Brixton and Holloway jails are now foreigners.

Almost 500 foreigners are in Wandsworth prison, which with 1,675 inmates has the largest jail population in modern prison history. Among the total foreign jail population are 3,000 serving between four and ten years and 580 serving life.

Among women almost half are serving sentences for drug offences, frequently having been arrested while trying to smuggle supplies into the country.

The large number of foreign prisoners in jails reflects the increasing ability of people to travel by air, and the difficulty in removing those convicted of offences.

Foreign citizens represent 14 per cent of the total prison population in England and Wales but the proportion is even higher in some other EU states. They represent 43 per cent of the prison population in Austria, 33 per cent in Spain, 28 per cent in Germany and 21 per cent in France, according to figures given to Parliament.

The numbers are also a reflection of the difficulties in removing prisoners from the country. Even if Britain has a prisoner repatriation agreement with an individual state enabling a foreigner to be returned to serve his or her sentence at home, both the foreign government and the foreigner have to consent to the return.

Last year only 2,900 foreign prisoners were from the 96 states with which Britain had a repatriation agreement.

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