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Hundred of foreign criminals including rapists and killers are on the run following a six-fold rise in the absconding rate.
Shocking figures show that the number either wanted by police or dodging deportation has soared from 169 in 2014 to more than 1,000 today.
Those who have vanished into the community have been convicted of the most serious crimes including murder, rape and terrorist offences.
Despite government promises to speed up the removal of foreign criminals, there has been a 19 per cent increase – from 916 at large in 2019 to 1,094 last month.
They include criminals wanted for outstanding offences, those facing deportation, prison escapees and others who skipped bail as they awaited sentencing or fled after being recalled to prison.
The number of foreign criminals either wanted by police or dodging deportation has soared from 169 in 2014 to more than 1,000 today (file image)
The largest proportion of missing fugitives – 352 – are drugs offenders, including gangsters suspected of smuggling huge quantities of cocaine and heroin into the country (Sacks of cocaine found on a ship travelling to Panama, June 16)
The data released under freedom of information laws also shows that there has been a 15 per cent fall in the number of foreign criminals successfully captured. Last year Home Office located 189 of them compared with 222 in 2020.
Rapist in hiding for 15 years
An Iraqi rapist has spent the last 15 years on the run after vanishing the day he was due to be sentenced for his crime.
Rezgar Zengana has spent 15 years on the run
Rezgar Zengana posed as a taxi driver to pick up his 25-year-old victim outside a Radisson Hotel before raping her at a flat in Glasgow in December 2006.
Throughout his trial, Zengana claimed sex with the woman was consensual and the prosecutor did not oppose bail. Despite being convicted of rape in June 2008, the asylum seeker was released on bail pending sentencing, a decision criticised at the time by Rape Crisis Scotland.
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Zengana never showed up at the High Court in Glasgow and has not been seen since.
The 40-year-old may have fled to the Netherlands or Turkey, but Crimestoppers has also suggested that he could have hidden in an Iraqi community.
Among those listed as missing are five murderers and 38 violent offenders. There are also up to five terrorists, 11 rapists, several paedophiles and 13 other sex offenders.
The largest proportion of missing fugitives – 352 – are drugs offenders, including gangsters suspected of smuggling huge quantities of cocaine and heroin into the country.
One of those sought by police is Daniel Dugic, who is suspected of being involved in a plot to import 255kg of cocaine. It would have had a street value of around £20million.
The Serbian is said to have played a major part in organising the drug trafficking operation in 2010, which involved transferring cocaine to a fishing vessel in the English Channel from a commercial container ship.
Another on the NCA list is Fatah Benlaredj, who is wanted for the alleged rape of a seven-year-old girl in May 2007. The Algerian is thought to be hiding in Spain.
Under Home Office rules, all foreign nationals given a jail sentence are considered for removal from the UK. But some vanish after being released into the community prior to deportation.
Over the past three years 606 have been located but 1,094 were still at large in May.
Tory MP Tim Loughton, who sits on the Commons home affairs committee, said: ‘This is an appalling figure. There are an alarming number of serious criminals at large and it is particularly alarming that this figure appears to have risen dramatically.
‘To put it into perspective, there are around 9,000 foreign nationals in prison, so to have 1,094 missing equates to around 12 per cent of the prison population at large. The public will be very concerned that they are potentially being put in danger from criminals who should be in prison here or deported.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Foreign nationals who commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible.
‘We never stop tracing absconders. Our dedicated national absconder tracing team works with the police to locate them and put a hard stop to those who callously seek to abuse the system.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
