More than 500 foreign criminals are freed early, according to figures

More than 500 foreign criminals have escaped deportation and won early release from jail over the last six months, according to figures revealed yesterday.

A total of 502 foreign prisoners have been allowed out almost three weeks before their official point of release since the end of June, they showed.

All are among the criminals who will not be deported from Britain despite Gordon Brown's promise to immigrants: "If you commit a crime you will be deported from our country."

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: "These are not petty criminals who are being released.

"Prison is reserved for serious and persistent offenders. In our view, any foreign national who commits a crime and is imprisoned should expect to be deported.

"That was what Gordon Brown said too. He did not mean what he said."

The disclosure came after a leak that showed immigration bosses have 'no interest' in deporting thousands of foreign offenders.

Those who are serving less than a year in jail are not being pursued by the Border and Immigration Agency and will not be sent back to their country of origin unless they were recommended for deportation at their trial or they have a long record of convictions.

The 502 foreign prisoners who were let out of jail early benefited from the End of Custody Licence scheme introduced by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer in June.

They are among between 4,000 and 6,000 foreign criminals given sentences of less than 12 months each year.

In July, the Prime Minister declared: "I want a message to go out. If you come here you work and you learn our language. If you commit a crime you will be deported."

But - as a result of the new Prison Service instruction - at least 4,000 foreign criminals convicted every year of offences such as theft, burglary, benefit fraud and drug dealing will be released back on to the streets at the end of their sentence.

Foreigners will also be allowed to be kept in open jails, despite the risk of absconding.

The revelations are contained in a Prison Service instruction to staff on how to make the best use of space in the network of open prisons, which have little or no security.

Foreign prisoners were barred from these jails last year by then home secretary John Reid after a spate of escapes.

But the instructions say this need no longer be the case if inmates are not facing deportation proceedings.

Giving examples, it states: "The Criminal Casework Directorate of the Border and Immigration Agency have confirmed to us that as a rule they have no interest in pursuing foreign national prisoners serving sentences of less than 12 months for deportation."

The exceptions are if the criminal was recommended for deportation by the courts, or if they have a string of convictions within the last five years.

On moving the foreign criminals to open jails, the order says local immigration officers "will have an interest in a foreign national sentenced to under 12 months, for example because the prisoner has no leave to remain in the UK and they wish to remove them from the UK on completion of their sentence".

However, it goes on to say that "this is not the same as deportation [and] does not preclude them from being allocated to open conditions".

Reasons why there is no point in officials taking an 'interest' in criminals sentenced to less than 12 months included an EU directive.

For European Economic Area nationals the Home Office can remove only those highly likely to reoffend and present a "present, genuine and sufficiently serious threat" to society.