As Jeremy Wright, UK’s Prisons Minister, says this number is about half of the 534 Nigerians currently in UK prisons. Thus Nigeria is among the top 10 countries whose nationals are serving in British jails.
He stated,
“I am clear that more foreign prisoners must serve their sentences in their own countries. That is why we are currently working with the Nigerian Government on a compulsory prisoner transfer agreement to increase the number of prisoners who are transferred.
“Legislation allowing Nigeria to enter such an arrangement was passed earlier this year by the Nigerian Parliament. We are now working with them on the text of a final agreement.”
A major stumbling block to deportation of foreign nationals in the past has been the condition of prisons in their own countries, but the UK has promised to provide £1million (N250 million) to Nigeria in order to help the country improve the state of its jails.
David Cameron, UK Prime Minister, in 2010 pledged to personally intervene to send more foreign criminals home.
In April 2013, he reaffirmed his statement, and said,
“When people are sent to prison in the UK we should do everything we can to make sure that if they’re foreign nationals, they are sent back to their country to serve their sentence in a foreign prison."
As Cameron points out, there are a lot of prisoners in UK coming from Jamaica, Nigeria and Asia. In his opinion, everything possible should be done for the prisoner transfer agreements with these countries to be signed, even if it is necessary to provide help with jails building.
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/49772.html
READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/49772.html
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