Brexit Negotiations: Government Wants Powers to Deport EU Criminals Protected By Free Movement Rules

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Jack Montgomery

Theresa May has made a “fair and generous” offer to European Union nationals who have settled in Britain – but wants new powers to deport dangerous EU criminals who are currently protected by Free Movement diktats.

The prime minister has offered to grant the roughly three million EU nationals in Britain “settled status”, with broadly the same rights as British citizens with respect to social benefits, pension rights, and access to the National Health Service (NHS). Details of the proposal will be revealed in a 15-page document, according to the BBC.

There are caveats, however, in that Theresa May expects the EU to offer the same rights to British nationals living on its territory, and The Times reports that she is also seeking increased powers to deport EU criminals.

“We want to see people who have murdered or raped deported, and this gives us an opportunity to do it,” said a Government source.

“We will be running criminal checks against people as they seek settled status and where serious or persistent criminal offences are identified they will be considered for deportation.

“This is an opportunity to set our own rules on who we allow to live here and we are going to take it.”

Police notifications to other EU member-states when their citizens are convicted, breach court orders, or lodge appeals suggest that EU nationals are involved in roughly 700 crimes a week in Britain – but the Free Movement rules which govern the Single Market make it very difficult to deport them.

MailOnline reports there are around 5,000 such criminals currently in British prisons, but few will be deported – because the EU deems that “Previous criminal convictions shall not in themselves constitute grounds for taking such measures”.

EU criminals can only be removed if they represent “a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat”, with the danger threshold increasing further if they have been in the country for 10 years.

Criminals not thought to represent a “sufficiently serious threat” have included very serious criminals, including rapists and individuals involved in paedophilia and human trafficking.

During the EU referendum campaign, Leave campaigners compiled a dossier highlighting 50 particularly egregious cases.

These included the Learco Chindamo, an Italian national who stabbed headteacher Philip Lawrence to death at the gates of his school while he was attempting to protect one of his pupils.

Another frequently cited example is Mircea Gheorghiu, a Romanian national who originally entered Britain illegally and was revealed as a convicted rapist when he was arrested for drunk driving. Gheorgiu was removed from the UK initially, but immigration judges ordered the Government to readmit him and grant him permanent resident status.

Even without the extra protections provided for criminals by the Free Movement regime, deporting foreign convicts is often impossible.

Breitbart London reported on June 26th how more than 40 foreign terrorists have used the Human Rights Act, which translates the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into British law, to escape deportation.

The HRA is also a favourite for sexual predators such as Mustafa Abdullahi, a Somalian who raped a pregnant woman at knifepoint in 2007. He was able to have his deportation order quashed by claiming it would violate his “right to a private and family life” – despite having no wife and children in Britain.

Immigration judges said that, “Although [Abdullahi] had committed serious offences” and subjected his victim to further trauma by refusing to admit his guilt and forcing her to go to trial, he had “at last faced up to what he has done and has taken significant steps to put behind him that kind of criminal behaviour” by attending a “victim empathy” class.

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery

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