Nearly 30% of the inmates who passed through Feltham Young Offenders Institution in West London in 2010 were born abroad

Among the countries most represented at Feltham are Somalia, which provided 63 offenders in 2010, Romania (48), Jamaica (41), and Afghanistan (26). The "Romanians" tend to be Gypsies whose ancestors originated in India. Britain's failure to deport illegal immigrants and foreign-born nationals convicted of crimes is turning the country into a magnet for the world’s low-lifes. Take the case of Mustaf Jama, a Somali serving a life sentence along with his brother and another man for the murder of wpc Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in November 2005. Jama should never have been in Britain in the first place, having been trafficked in as a child in 1993. Immigration officials failed to remove him and his family then and declined to deport him even after he committed a string of serious offences as an adult. Just a few months before the murder of wpc Beshenivsky the Home Office ruled that it would be “too dangerous” for Jama to be returned to Somalia. Another case involves terror suspect Abu Qatada, who entered Britain illegally on a forged passport in 1993, has avoided deportation to his native Jordan where he is wanted in connection with a hotel-bombing. His lawyers argued that the Jordanians cannot be trusted to give him a fair trial, claiming that evidence against him has been gained through torture.