Reid calls off hunt for foreign prisoners despite 400 at large

Efforts to trace more than 1,000 foreign prisoners wrongly freed without being considered for deportation have been wound down despite hundreds still being at large.

John Reid claimed on his first day as Home Secretary that the hunt for the foreign criminals - who cost his predecessor Charles Clarke his job - was his 'highest priority.'

Yet within weeks the special unit of 60 police, probation and immigration officers set up to lead the nationwide man-hunt was quietly disbanded, with officials claiming their efforts were no longer 'our priority.'

Although the Home Office is refusing to discuss latest figures, at the last count more than 400 foreign offenders were still unaccounted for after being released from prison without being assessed for deportation.

They included 74 convicted of violent and sexual crimes who officials had now decided they wanted to deport, of whom seven had been jailed for murder, manslaughter, rape or paedophile offences.

At least 48 serious offenders had committed more crimes after being released from jail - with bungling officials failing to consider them for removal, including one who had gone on to commit a murder.

The special man-hunt unit was set up in March this year in Portsmouth to coordinate the search for the foreign prisoners after the scandal erupted, and the Home Office admitted they should all have been considered for deportation before being freed.

John Reid made a point of making a high-profile visit the unit on his first day in his new job in May - publicly signalling his determination to contain the damage by ensuring all the foreign offenders were tracked down, and promising to 'move heaven and earth' to get the job done.

Yet a few weeks later at the end of June Lin Homer, head of the Home Office's heavily-criticised Immigration and Nationality Directorate, wrote to Parliament to update MPs on the latest progress in tackling the scandal, failed to mention that the special team was being disbanded that very day, with officers sent back to their normal duties.

Yesterday the Home Office initially claimed the man-hunt team was shut down because there were only seven foreign offenders remaining untraced who fitted the criteria for being deported.

But when pressed officials confirmed that at the time there were in fact 74 prisoners at large who had committed offences classed as 'more or most serious' ranging from murder to armed robbery and sexual assaults.

A spokeswoman would not comment on why these cases were no longer considered a priority, or how many had since been traced, if any.

Shadow immigration minster Damian Green said: 'We need to know urgently how many of these people are still on the loose and we need to know when the rest of them are going to be deported. This looks like another example of tough talk not being matched by effective action.'

The foreign prisoner fiasco shook the Home Office to its foundations leading Tony Blair to sack Charles Clarke as Home Secretary, while his successor John Reid described the department as 'not fit for purpose.'

He has since promised far-reaching reforms of the way the Home Office works.

Although almost 800 of the foreign prisoners have now been earmarked for deportation, hundreds are thought to be appealing against the decision or claiming asylum.

Efforts to send many of them home are likely to be frustrated by human rights laws preventing deportations to countries where subjects could face persecution.

At the last count only 46 of the 1,013 foreign criminals had been sent home.