Lawyers say police could 'circumvent criminal justice' by using intelligence in civil immigration courts to increase deportations
More than 100 foreign nationals are to be targeted for deportation each week by the Metropolitan police in a crackdown on individuals from abroad suspected of carrying out serious crime in Britain.
A 100-strong team of officers is working with the UK Border Agency in a team known as Operation Nexus to increase the number of people deported from London this year by 2,400. Some of those being targeted will have lived in the country for several years and will not have been convicted of offences. Police say they are using intelligence about such people to influence immigration tribunals in favour of deportation as part of a focus on protecting the public from foreign nationals who commit crime.
The tactics have raised fears among immigration lawyers that the authorities could abuse their use of intelligence to "convict" individuals in the civil immigration courts, which have a lower standard of proof than a criminal court. "It is circumventing the criminal justice system," said S Chelvan, an immigration barrister.
Rita Chadha, chief executive of the Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London, said: "When Nexus first began we were reassured it was only about people who had criminal convictions in this country or in their home countries and who were very high risk.
"What we are seeing now is that they are targeting all crimes and low level criminality. This is going to stop victims coming forward in the black and ethinc minority communities because they fear they will be targeted by Nexus. If you have a woman suffering domestic violence in a household of overstayers she is not going to come forward.
"This is totally going to mess up local policing and any trust communities have in the police."
Commander Steve Rodhouse, of the Metropolitan police, said officers from his unit, Operation Nexus, wanted to increase the number of people whose details were passed to the border agency for deportation from between 30 to 50 a week to more than 100. Some will involve people who have outstayed permission to remain in the country, while others will involve those convicted of crimes or suspected of criminality, whose presence is considered not conducive to the public good.
Met figures show 30% of those arrested each year in the capital are foreign nationals. About half of them are from the EU, according to figures released in 2012.
As part of the action against foreigners who commit crimes, staff from the UKBA are embedded in 72 custody suites across the capital.
Assistant Met commissioner Mark Rowley said officers were able to influence decisions of the immigration tribunals by passing on intelligence on individuals suspected of crimes. Rowley said: "We should be determined and creative in using every power possible to protect the public. Prosecuting people here and putting them in prison is the best option but if that is not going to work we should be using other powers."
But Mark Lilley-Tams, a solicitor from Paragon Law who specialises in deportation cases, said: "If someone who has been arrested has leave to remain [the police and Home Office] need to curtail that leave to be able to remove them.
"To do that on the basis of intelligence is something that has been done rarely in the past. If they are deciding to do it on a more mass scale that is quite worrying." He said the removal of legal aid for immigration cases combined with the tactics being used in Operation Nexus could result in individuals not being given the correct advice when in police stations.
Lilley-Tams said he had a case where the Home Office was trying to deport someone as a "foreign national" who was brought to Britain as an 18-month-old baby.
Judges considering deportation have to balance the right to a family and private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights with the public interest in removing foreign nationals because their presence is not conducive to the public good.
The Met and immigration officials cite the case of Lincoln Farquharson, a 46-year-old Jamaican man from Lewisham, south-east London, who was deported last month, as an example of how Operation Nexus can remove dangerous individuals from the streets. Farquharson was arrested for rape in November 2011 and further investigations revealed he was suspected of being a serial rapist, with a history of domestic violence, who had been charged with rape five times between 2006 and 2011. In some cases the charge involved multiple rape and in some cases he threatened his victims with a firearm. Two cases went to trial but the juries did not reach verdicts.
By the time he was arrested in November 2011 he had overstayed his leave to remain. He was detained under immigration powers, and police and Home Office officials collated a file of evidence on him to provide to an immigration tribunal hearing his appeal to illustrate that he posed a continuing threat to women.
After 16 months, in which he fought removal on the basis of his right to a private life, the tribunal ruled that he could be deported and he was removed from the country on 26 May.
Mr Justice Blake, president of the upper tribunal immigration and asylum chamber, ruled in the case: "We are entirely satisfied that his past treatment of women supports an assessment that he presents a real risk of future harm to women."
Detective Superintendent Stuart Dark, of Operation Nexus, said of Farquharson: "We will continue to work to identify and remove those foreign nationals who have avoided criminal prosecution but whose pattern of behaviour means they represent a risk to the British public."
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