FOREIGN crooks who faced deportation after serving their jail terms are instead committing murders, rapes and break-ins across Britain after being let back on to our streets.
A Sun on Sunday probe exposes a rogues’ gallery of offenders who have committed further crimes after release, including some that were far more serious than their initial offences.
Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago was killed in a knife fight in Greenwich
Jason Furtado was jailed for life for murdering a schoolboy, despite the fact he should have been deported nine years agoUnpixs
It comes after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently pledged to this newspaper she will introduce instant deportations for foreign offenders.
Last week, migrant Jason Furtado was jailed for life for murdering a schoolboy, even though he was supposed to have been deported nine years ago after serving time for theft and motoring offences.
Gang member Furtado, 28, was wearing an electronic tag on immigration bail when he fatally attacked schoolboy Leonardo Reid, 15, and Klevi Shekaj, 23, in Islington, North London, in June 2024.
But the Home Office had already made multiple unsuccessful attempts to boot him out of the UK, starting in 2016 when it first issued a deportation order.
Meanwhile, he continued on a crime spree that included crashing a stolen car into drinkers outside an Islington pub days after the Westminster terror attack in 2017.
The Government should be on top of it. Anybody committing a crime, get them out. It’s as simple as that.
Iain Duncan Smith
Two customers queuing outside the Old Queen’s Head pub, Estelle Boon and Jonathan Cleaver, both then 32, were seriously injured.
Last month Furtado was jailed for 37 years for the two murders and an attempted murder — and again a judge has ordered his deportation.
Angolan-born Furtado was previously able to avoid deportation by repeatedly contesting his removal before officials could get him on a plane to Portugal, where he has citizenship.
Official figures show that of the 19,390 foreign criminals eligible for deportation from Britain, 3,708 — almost one in five — have been out of jail and living in the community for more than five years.
Over the last four years 11,890 foreign criminals have re- offended, and 537 of the worst have committed ten or more crimes.
In August, when Ms Mahmood was still the Justice Secretary, she pledged to change the law to deport foreign crooks sooner.
She told The Sun on Sunday: “My message to foreign criminals is clear — break Britain’s laws and you’ll be sent packing in record time.
“Those who have abused this country’s proud hospitality should not expect free bed and board at the taxpayer’s expense.”
But since then, no immediate deportations straight after sentencing have taken place.
MP and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “We have to get to grips with this madness.
“The Government should be on top of it. Anybody committing a crime, get them out. It’s as simple as that.
Alius Ambulta has used five identities and racked up 17 convictions in 2022 and 2023Supplied
Ramazan Mukalazi was jailed for raping a young woman in 2008 and freed in 2018
Ernesto Elliot, whose 2020 deportation for previous knife crimes was infamously derailed by a last-minute human rights appeal
“They shouldn’t be serving time here, they should be kicked out.
“If foreign migrants carry out crime in the UK, they must lose their right to be here, or to apply to be here, and should then be sent away.”
Our investigation found that those who offended again include Jamaican Ernesto Elliot, whose 2020 deportation for previous knife crimes was infamously derailed by a last-minute human rights appeal.
The 47-year-old, who came to the UK in 2003, was spared removal despite racking up 17 criminal convictions, including possession of an imitation gun.
His removal from the UK was cancelled, and six months later, in June 2022, he and his son Nico, 25, killed 35-year-old Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago in a knife fight in Greenwich, East London.
Eerily similar crime
The pair, who also stole drugs and cash from the victim, were both jailed for life.
In another case, a Ugandan rapist who had been recommended for deportation by a judge was released into the community and then tried to rape a pensioner in an eerily similar crime.
Ramazan Mukalazi, 42, had first been jailed for life for raping a young woman in 2008.
He was freed from prison in 2018, then freed again from an immigration removal centre in 2021, even though there was no legal barrier to his deportation.
In November 2022 he hit a 66-year-old woman over the head in Hounslow, West London, dragged her into bushes and tried to rape her, telling her: “If you scream, I will rip your tongue out.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood recently pledged she will introduce instant deportations for foreign offendersPA
MP and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith says ‘we have to get to grips with this madness’Alamy
The woman, who had a brain haemorrhage, was found by a passer-by who also spotted Mukalazi with his trousers around his ankles.
Mukalazi initially claimed he found his victim lying on the pavement and was trying to help her, but later admitted attempted rape and grievous bodily harm.
He was jailed for life at the Old Bailey and was told he would serve a minimum of 11 years.
Alius Ambulta, 39, has used five identities and racked up 17 convictions in 2022 and 2023, including for drug-dealing.
He had also served at least two jail terms after arriving illegally in the UK from his native Lithuania.
A judge had ordered him to be deported but he was let out and still offending, when in December last year he was again convicted and jailed for drug-dealing.
At Norwich Crown Court, Judge Katharine Moore told him: “The fact you have managed to amass a number of convictions is troubling.
“That you are in the UK subject to immigration bail doesn’t seem to be any sort of deterrent.”
Ambulta, of Great Yarmouth, has posted pictures on Facebook showing he was out of jail and still in the UK as recently as July.
So-called “Rolex Ripper” Amine Bentaib, 30, was already wanted for deportation when he tried to steal an £18,000 watch from a grandfather in London in July 2023.
Schoolboy Leonardo Reid, 15, was murdered by a migrant who should have been deportedUnpixs
UnpixsKlevi Shekaj was fatally stabbed in Islington, North London, in June 2024[/caption]
Judge Adam Hiddleston jailed Algerian Bentaib for 45 months at Southwark Crown Court last December, adding that he “will qualify as a foreign criminal and be subject to automatic deportation”.
But prosecutors told the court that Bentaib had already been pursued for deportation since September 2022 — and cops had still not nicked him.
At his sentencing, Judge Hiddleston added: “While I think it is unlikely you will be released before being deported, should any circumstances arise by which in the future you are at liberty on the streets of London, any measures that can be put in place to prevent further offending should in my judgment be deployed.”
Experts say the current deportation system is too soft on foreign criminals and gives them enough chances to avoid ever being sent home.
Huge backlog
Foreign criminals serving prison sentences of 12 months or more are typically served with a Stage One Deportation Order.
The order outlines why the Home Office is seeking to deport a criminal and gives notice of the period in which they can raise objections.
After the offender makes initial representations, officials then send a Stage Two letter — a final decision that the person should be deported.
But migrants can still appeal to the First-Tier Immigration Tribunal on human rights or legal grounds, and if that fails, they can protest again to the Upper-Tier Immigration Tribunal.
Exceptional cases can progress to a Judicial Review at the High Court or the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.
Cases can take years to be processed and often cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A huge backlog of court cases also means foreign criminals’ sentences often end before a final deportation decision is made, so the offenders are released — and free to resume their illegal activities.
A Home Office spokesman said: “When foreign nationals commit serious crimes in our country, we will always do everything in our power to deport them, and the Home Secretary has been clear that efforts will be made to speed up this process.
“This government deported almost 5,200 foreign national offenders in its first year in office, a 14 per cent increase on the previous year, and we will continue to do everything we can to remove these vile criminals from our streets.”
Government sources added that more detailed reforms to foreign offender laws would be laid down in the next few months.
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