Britain to Build a Prison in Nigeria

Another story which, whilst being almost unbelievable, demonstrates the folly of Britain's current immigration policies.

The British government wishes to spend up to £1 million of taxpayers' money building a prison for 400 inmates - in Nigeria.

This will allow us, allegedly, to deport Nigerian criminals currently serving their sentences here. Of course, human rights legislation decrees that Nigerian jails are too harsh for us to deport their nationals to.

No one seems to have thought of the potential downside - creating a two-tier prison system in Nigeria might show Nigerians (well, the few who don't already know) just how soft Britain is, and they might come here to commit crimes to gain access to the comfortable jail - which will be, as ours are, a veritable luxury hotel compared to the life of a poverty-stricken African.

Here is the full story:

British taxpayers are to provide £1million for a comfortable jail in Nigeria to take convicts whose crimes were committed in the UK.

The prison would house 400 Nigerian inmates incarcerated in our own packed prisons who cannot be forcibly sent home to complete their punishments.

Jails there are considered so rough that any prisoner the UK tried to deport could oppose their removal on human rights grounds.

But the Government hopes that by spending as much as £1million turning a rundown Nigerian prison into something approaching British standards, the convicts could be repatriated.

Lin Homer, the chief executive of the UK Border Agency, told MPs the deal would save taxpayers' money, because the UK would no longer have to pay the £30,000-a-year cost of keeping inmates in our own jails.

'We are in negotiations with Nigeria to help them establish better prison conditions,' she said.

'It's about helping them generate a structure that can cope with the prisoners. It would be well worth the money to do so.'

But Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It's an absolute scandal that British taxpayers may foot the bill for a Nigerian prison.

'The Government should not even entertain this nonsense proposal, particularly at a time when our own prison service is so desperately in need of funds.

'If Nigerians are here illegally and are going to be deported, we should be sending them home immediately.'

Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: 'This should not mean in the long term we build prisons all around the world instead of sorting out our own deportation processes.'

Ministers have been frantically searching for a solution to the UK's chronic prisoner overcrowding crisis since 2005, when the number of foreign criminals soared past 11,000 - the equivalent of more than one in every eight inmates.

Prisoners have been offered cash windfalls - which some say are bribes - if they returned home voluntarily.

But this is the first time the Government has announced firm plans to provide funding for a jail overseas.

The idea had been suggested in relation to Jamaica, but never got off the ground.

It would require Nigeria to change its laws so prisoners could be sent back without their consent.

Now, one has to wonder - did it ever occur to Miss Homer that, if her department were fit for purpose, such a ridiculous measure would not be needed to save taxpayers money?

Who is responsible for allowing all these Nigerian criminals into the country in the first place, and not deporting them before things have deteriorated to the point that they receive a custodial sentence here?

Also, on what planet is the Nigerian government going to change its laws so that we can deport these people, unless we at the very least pay to keep them whilst they are serving their sentences (ad more likely offer huge bribes in the way of 'aid')?

This is simply another disgusting attempt by the government to mask its gross incompetence with confidence.

It does not add up when the facts and reality are examined.