Much 'Ado' about deportation of Foreign Nationals

For two days Tuesday/Wednesday 25/26th April 2006 there was a media frenzy about 1,000 foreign national who committed crimes, served time in prison but were not deported from the UK on completion of their sentences.

NCADC does not condone criminal activity, but have campaigned vigorously against the 'Double Punishment' of a prison sentence followed by deportation for foreign nationals convicted in UK courts. We have supported many campaigns against 'double punishment' which have won the 'Right to Stay' in the UK.

Breaking the law is not acceptable but the law must be fair, and seen to be fair, in how it punishes someone who breaks the law. Sentencing must be consistent and not discriminatory. A UK citizen who is sentenced to 10 years in prison for a crime is released back into the community with appropriate safeguards when they have served their sentence. However, a foreign national is sentenced to 10 years in prison for the same crime can be deported from the UK when they have served their sentence. This is discriminatory and unjust. It is indeed a "double punishment".

Double Punishment
It is a fundamental principle of UK law that a person cannot be punished twice for the same offence. However this does not apply to foreign nationals living in the UK, irrespective of how long they have been living in the UK or that they have established ties with their families and communities. If they commit a crime and are sentenced to imprisonment they can also face a secondary punishment of deportation.

Deportation can take place in two ways. Firstly, it can be recommended by a court following conviction for an offence punishable with imprisonment. Secondly, even where the court makes no recommendation, the Home Office can subsequently intervene and serve a deportation notice on the grounds that the prisoner's presence in the UK is not "conducive to the public good".

Even where the Home Office does not enforce deportation following a conviction, nonetheless a person found guilty of an offence punishable with imprisonment for more than twelve months can be refused re-entry if they leave the UK.

Deportation following conviction can be irrespective of how family ties in this country. In many cases the Home Office will argue that to keep the families together, partners and children of convicted foreign nationals can uproot themselves and go and live abroad often in countries they may have never been to, this amounts to constructive deportation.

However the courts in these cases can often disagree with the Home Secretary when he tries to deport someone with family ties in the UK. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life. At times it would not be feasible, realistic, practicable, reasonable or sensible for the whole family to uproot and leave the UK because of the conviction of one member of the family. In one particular case where the Home Secretary's intention to deport was rejected the adjudicator said: "... deportation at the end of a ten year sentence may indeed come close to a double punishment - and one that would appear to be, largely, reserved for persons from the ethnic minorities."

NCADC call for an end to the practice of double punishment of foreign nationals as it is discriminatory and unjust.