UK taxpayers are forking out £629 million a year to house 10,487 foreign national offenders in British prisons — a bill that could pay for 16,500 police officers or 15,000 NHS nurses.
While Labour claims it’s deporting record numbers, an ex-prison governor has torn into the “staggering” cost and the “incredibly slow process” that leaves dangerous foreign criminals draining public resources instead of being sent home.
This is the direct result of years of open-borders policies that prioritise criminals’ “rights” over British safety.
'We've got to persuade countries to take these individuals back.'
— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 5, 2026
Reform UK's Prisons Advisor Vanessa Frake reacts as GB News finds 10,487 foreign offenders in Britain are costing taxpayers £629 million a year. pic.twitter.com/VRyPpaOlXf
Reform UK’s Prisons Adviser and former prison governor Vanessa Frake laid it out clearly on GB News. “The cost to this country for foreign national prisoners is staggering,” she said. “It’s a very long, drawn-out process, which kind of goes from three main areas.”
Frake detailed the excuses that keep foreign offenders here: “The problem is a lack of identity documents for these people. Quite often they get rid of their passports, so the Home Office then has to write to the country that they originate from, and that process is very slow.”
“Sometimes the country refuses. And there are of course the ECHR claims. Those under Article 8, right to life, right to family for those who have family in this country and of course, there is administration errors as well,” Frake further explained.
She added that even recent deals fall short. “They’ve just done a deal with Albania to send 200 prisoners back, but that comes with certain conditions, like improving their prison service, giving them electric Volkswagens, etcetera.”
Britain's 'staggering' cost of foreign nationals in UK prisons torn apart by ex-prison governorhttps://t.co/9k4F9JwdOT
— GB News (@GBNEWS) May 5, 2026
Frake noted the daily cost disparity: “It costs something like £109 a day in this country to keep a foreign national in prison, and we’re going to give the Albanians £32 a day, so it’s still not quick.”
Albania tops the list of foreign national prisoners, followed by Ireland and Poland. Yet Frake’s blunt conclusion was that Britain can’t simply load them onto planes. “We’re not going to get away with it by just putting them on a plane, we’ve got to persuade these countries to take these individuals back.”
This isn’t an isolated failure. It’s the pattern. Britain has repeatedly let violent offenders and known extremists stay or walk free despite clear red flags.
Take the most recent case of a Somali terrorist in London who previously stabbed police officers, and was a known extremist.
Essa Suleiman, who arrived as a child and holds British citizenship, was convicted in 2008 for stabbing two officers and a police dog. Referred to Prevent in 2020 as an extremist, he was still free to attempt to murder two Jewish people in Golders Green last month.
Leftists seem more concerned with how police roughly handled the terrorist, however.
In another case, Al-Qaeda-inspired plotter Shah Rahman, was convicted for planning to bomb the London Stock Exchange, but can’t be sent back to Bangladesh because an immigration judge ruled it would breach his Article 3 human rights against “torture or inhuman treatment.”
He even married a woman banned from Britain for life over ISIS material.
In Edinburgh a reported Somali migrant went on a knife rampage, smashing a shop and stabbing victims near a school.
Council leader Cllr Jane Meagher responded by praising Edinburgh’s “diversity” as its “biggest strength” and calling for more “tolerance.”
In another example, Zahid Iqbal, who plotted to bomb an Army base using an Al-Qaeda manual and a toy-car IED, was freed three years early despite warnings and prior recall for breaching conditions.
How many more are there like this — released from prison or previously charged with serious crimes — now roaming around free?
The Ministry of Justice claims more than 8,700 foreign offenders have been removed since July 2024. Yet the prisons remain full of them, the costs keep climbing, and the public keeps paying the price for a system rigged against its own people.
This growing insecurity is now reflected in public sentiment. According to a major survey, four in five parents (80%) fear their daughters will grow up feeling unsafe in public in Britain, with 40% believing this will happen at an earlier age than it did for them.
Most parents fear daughters will grow up unsafe in public
— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 5, 2026
Read more ? https://t.co/S6DhQspyoQ
The solution offered?
In Dumfries, Scotland, schoolgirls were handed rape alarms after repeated reports of asylum seekers stalking and photographing them — the authorities’ answer to the problem instead of stopping the influx.
This is what unchecked mass immigration and weak deportation rules deliver: British taxpayers funding foreign criminals while violent threats walk the streets. Real border control means ending the excuses, scrapping the ECHR vetoes, and putting British safety first — before the bill gets any bigger.
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