The Deportation Report 2007 – The Labour Government’s Failure to Deport EU Criminals Resulting from the Superiority of EU Law

The Labour Government has failed catastrophically in its attempts to enforce deportation orders against criminals to within EU Member States on release from prison. This has greatly jeopardised public security within Britain and has largely been a result of European policy under the EU’s Citizens Directive 2004, as implemented in the UK under the Immigration Regulations 2006.

In the European Foundation’s ‘Deportation Report 2007’, there is an analysis of the recent European legislation, implemented under the Labour Government, which shows that it is wholly incorrect for the Home Office to consistently claim that the strict EU laws on the freedom of movement of persons within Europe has not impinged upon the UK’s right to deport criminals after release from prison to the EU Member States. Recent legislation, introduced into the UK under the Immigration regulations 2006, consistent with the EU Citizens Directive, has demonstrated how EU law now takes precedence over a redundant UK law, relating to deportation orders.

James McConalogue, Director of the European Foundation, said:

“The issues of immigration and deportation of prisoners after release from prison are extremely sensitive issues, but they are not ones that we can continue to simply pass by. We abide by a Labour Government’s Home Secretaries, whether that be Charles Clarke, John Reid, David Blunkett or Jacqui Smith, who claim to ensure deportation orders are working effectively yet simultaneously have introduced draconian EU legislation in through the back door to prevent such deportation orders taking effect, leaving Britain open to serious public risk from crime on the streets through to acts of public terror within the cities. This issue must be addressed. And Europe is at the core of the problem.”

The Deportation Report 2007 concludes with the following:

It is incorrect for the Home Office to consistently claim that the strict EU laws on the freedom of movement of persons within Europe has not impinged upon the UK’s right to deport criminals after release from prison to the EU Member States. Recent legislation, introduced into the UK under the Immigration regulations 2006, consistent with the EU Citizens Directive, has demonstrated how EU law now takes precedence over a redundant UK immigration law.

We emphasise a number of Asylum Immigration Tribunal cases which are public testaments to second-rate British asylum and immigration laws that have necessarily been obliged to converge with the Citizens Directive, under which the Community has asserted an unconditional free movement of ‘EU citizens’, without taking into account the proper and detrimental consequences for Member States. This has put the British public in the path of grave danger.

Independent and eminent legal advisers have already said that the introduction of at least one new immigration regulation under the Citizens Directive “may make it more difficult for the Secretary of State to remove or deport an EEA national on the ground of criminal conduct than appeared to be the case previously.” It is for the Home Secretary to answer to those grounded proposals, since they are now determining the safety and welfare of British citizens.

The UK’s own Asylum Immigration Tribunal has been forced unreservedly into accepting the case that EU law takes precedence over British law which enabled deportation measures under the authority of British judges. This is contrary to what Britain actually needs to properly address the dangerous deportation situation.

It is clear that when transposed into UK law, the Citizens Directive assumes that previous convictions do not warrant deportation. This is due, in part, to the fact that the ECJ has determined the “present threat” and “the requirements of public policy” for deportation of prisoners at an arbitrary European level, regardless of the conditions stated by the national Secretary of State.

The UK Government, under ECJ guidance, is not entitled to use deportation as a preventive or deterrence measure, leaving open concerns that British criminal policy will be severely restricted in what can be delivered for the safety of British citizens since the Government has accepted a potentially dangerous European judgement: that the use of such measures as a deterrent is to be barred by law.