175 prolific foreign national offenders removed from UK
The offenders were removed in just a few months as a result of a joint operation by the UK Border Agency and the Metropolitan Police.
Operation Nexus was launched at the start of September to target the increasing number of high-harm foreign national offenders and immigration offenders in London.
Risk to the public
Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: ‘I’ve been clear that we will take all possible action against individuals who pose a risk to the public and remove them from the country at the earliest opportunity.
‘Through our combined work with the police we are using the full force of immigration powers on those who seek to commit crime and damage our communities.
‘The success of this operation proves that foreign nationals who continue to offend in this country will be arrested and removed from the UK.’
Immigration checks
Many of the operation’s successes have come as a result of posting UKBA officers in 21 custody suites across London. This now allows UKBA to run real-time immigration checks on individuals bought into custody for a crime and establish if they are wanted abroad, have previous convictions abroad or are here illegally.
Nexus also provides the UKBA and police with additional tactics:
- Unknown prints at police crime scenes and other forensic markers are now being run against UKBA biometric databases in a bid to solve previously unsolved crimes, both in the UK and abroad
- Working relationships have been established with police officers from countries where high volumes of offenders are identified to help share information and further speed up removals - 20 officers have already been seconded from Romania