 |
| President Goodluck Jonathan |
Determined to decongest their prisons and reduce the huge cost of fending for the prisoners, the United Kingdom government is concluding plans with several countries, including Nigeria, to transfer the prisoners who are their nationals, so they can serve out their jail terms in their home countries.
Towards this end, hundreds of Nigerians jailed or detained criminals will be sent home to serve out prison sentences under the deal set to be struck by the Nigerian Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, and his British counterpart, Jeremy Wright, within weeks. Talks are continuing on reaching a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement, which could see more than half of the 500 criminals from Nigeria currently in UK jails repatriated.
Wright told the MailOnline how “more foreign prisoners must serve their sentences in their own countries.” Ministers have been ordered to step up efforts to end the scandal of more than one in eight prisoners being from overseas.
British Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to end the practice of the British taxpayer picking up the bill for criminals with no business in the UK.
The Prime Minister said in 2010 that he would “personally intervene” to send more foreign criminals home.
Britain has even made it clear that it would pay to build new prisons in countries like Nigeria to speed up the process of sending foreign criminals home.
No comments:
Post a Comment