Hundreds of Algerian and Iraqi criminals live freely in UK despite deportation orders

The Home Office has revealed that there are 20,000 foreign offenders residing in the UK who are subject to deportation orders. This number includes 642 Algerians and 596 Iraqis. Algerian criminals have a deportation rate of 4.2 percent, while Iraqis have a rate of 3.4 percent. These figures were disclosed to The Times.

Organized gangs, predominantly made up of Algerians, have been implicated in a series of luxury watch thefts in upscale neighborhoods of London. Concurrently, Iraqi criminals have been heavily involved in human smuggling through small boats across the English Channel.

Deportation rates have seen a significant increase from 8,000 in 2020 under the Conservative government to 36,000 under the current Labour administration in 2025. However, foreign offenders represent less than 30 percent of those removed from the UK.

The data also shows that 773 offenders are awaiting deportation to Nigeria, and 775 Jamaican offenders are subject to enforcement actions but are still living in the community. All foreign criminals sentenced to over a year in prison are included in the deportation list following recent legal changes.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, criticized the government for allowing foreign criminals to remain in the UK. He argued that only a small percentage of criminals from nations like Jamaica, Nigeria, Somalia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, or India are returned. Philp claimed that due to numerous human rights claims and the Labour party's belief that deporting criminals is racist, dangerous individuals continue to reside in the UK and engage in crimes such as rape and murder.

One notable Algerian criminal in the UK is Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old who arrived in 2019 on a visitor visa. He was mistakenly released from HMP Wandsworth in late 2025 and subsequently faced trials for offenses including burglary, knife possession, and assaulting an emergency worker. Kaddour-Cherif will be deported once his sentence is completed.

The Home Office stated that any foreign national who receives a prison sentence in the UK will be referred for deportation as soon as possible and barred from returning. Returns have reached their highest level in nearly a decade, with nearly 12,000 foreign criminals, including murderers and rapists, returned or deported in the two years following the last election, marking a 41 percent increase compared to the previous two years.