Foreigners carry out one in every five killings in Britain, police figures reveal

One in every five murders or manslaughters in England and Wales is committed by a foreigner, police figures revealed.

In one area of London, the figure is one in three.

This is despite the fact that foreigners represent only around one in 16 of the general population.

The statistics are so alarming that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will hold a migrant crime summit on Thursday amid worries that police are struggling to cope.

According to figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act, the 96 foreign nationals convicted of homicide last year were from 28 different countries.

They were involved in 21 per cent of the total of 461 murder and manslaughter cases.

Critics blame the Government's failure to deport foreign criminals. Recent cases have involved foreigners who had already been convicted of robbery and assault but were allowed to remain after serving their sentences.

Conservative MP David Davies, a member of the Commons home affairs committee, said: "These extraordinary figures demonstrate the failure of the Government's immigration policy, which has seen all sorts of undesirable characters being able to get into this country and use the Human Rights Act to escape deportation."

The figures show a wide variation between areas. In London, as many as 76 out of 231 identified killers were foreign nationals.

In Manchester, it was eight out of 42, and in Bedfordshire, three out of seven. But in West Yorkshire, it was none out of 47.

In many cases, the figures reflect the influence of immigrant crime gangs. Scotland Yard said half of the organised crime gangs in London are "ethnic", or bound by a common language or homeland-The most common nationalities for foreign killers were Pakistani, Indian and Jamaican. Foreigners were also more likely to be victims.

According to the figures, 15 per cent of those who died were from overseas. In many cases, both victim and killer were from the same immigrant community, reflecting internal feuding.

Not all police forces responded to requests for information but the figures available cover more than half of the 755 homicides in 2006-2007.

Among the most high-profile cases was that of Roberto Malasi, an 18-year-old Angolan asylum seeker who shot dead a 33-year-old woman as she cradled her baby niece at a christening in south London.

Malasi went on the run and two weeks later stabbed to death an 18-year-old pastor's daughter who he felt had "disrespected" him.

Other cases include Yusuf Jama, a Somali asylum seeker, who was in the gang that shot dead PC Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in 2005.

The revelations are likely to feature on the agenda for Thursday's summit, which was called by the Home Office earlier this year. It is the first of its kind, and follows letters of concern from Chief Constables.

Cambridgeshire's Julie Spence warned as long ago as 2005 there was "community tension" involving migrants which had the "potential for large-scale public disorder".

She was forced to write again last year, saying the problem had "clearly magnified".

Kent's Michael Fuller has also warned that the size of his force has not kept pace with an explosion in migrant numbers.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Last year, we deported a record number of foreign national criminals. Anyone convicted of a serious crime, such as murder, will be automatically deported."