Migrants arrested for 170,000 offences last year - one every 3 minutes

Between April 2024 and March 2025, there were an average of 473 foreign national arrests a day.

New research by the Centre for Migration Control reveals that in the last year of available data there were 172,889 foreign national arrests recorded by the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales and the British Transport Police (BTP).

This is the equivalent of 473.66 arrests a day;

19.7 every hour;

or an arrest every 183 seconds (3 mins, 3 secs).

This has been reported in The Express: https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2155879/Crime-foreign-nationals-Donald-Trump-Labour-Shabana-Mahmood

The data shows arrests for offences ranging from murder, grooming of children, manslaughter, rape, and possession of a firearm, through to immigration offences - including efforts to facilitate the illegal entry of others - and stalking.

Total arrests: 172, 889

Sexual offences: 11,264

Violent offences: 51,212

Drug offences: 14,035

Theft: 13,681

About the data

The Freedom of Information requested was as follows:

“Please provide within 20 working days data for the year ending 31 March 2025:

The total number of arrests of foreign nationals made by your police force for the year ending 31 March 2025.

The total number of arrests of foreign nationals made by your police force for the year ending 31 March 2025 for the following offence categories:

- Sexual offences
- Violence against the person
- Drug offences
- Theft”

Of the 44 police forces, 39 responded, showing a total of 163,009 arrests.

• 50,507 of these were for violent offences

• 11,271 of these were for sexual offences

• 13,864 of these were for drug offences

• 13,400 of these were for theft.

However, the number of migrant arrests across these forces will actually be higher. This is because, whilst the FOI request made it clear it was interested in the number of foreign national arrests, several police forces interpreted this as the number of foreign nationals arrested. This will have the effect of understating the total number of arrests because an individual can be arrested for multiple offences at once.

Of these 39 police forces, 36 provided information on the number of arrests for drug, violence, sexual and theft offences. Surrey and Greater Manchester police were unable to provide all of this information in a usable format, whilst the City of London has woeful data practices and thus did not have a breakdown by offence category.

Supplementary data from the five non-responsive forces

Of the 5 forces which were unable/unwilling to provide a response, the CMC has data from a previous FOI request (covering 1st January 2024 to the end of October) which will allow us to supplement the above data.

The Freedom of Information request (sent 24th October 2024) was as follows:

“a) the total number of arrests made by your organisation since 1 January 2024

b) the number of arrests of foreign nationals by your organisation since 1 January 2024

c) If possible, a breakdown of the alleged crimes committed by arrested foreign nationals since 1 January 2024.

d) If possible, a breakdown of arrested non-UK nationals by their nationality”

There were 9,880 arrests recorded in the data provided by these 5 police forces, with 880 sexual offence arrests.

Of course, given that these figures only encompass the first ten months of 2024, rather than April 2024 - March 2025, they do not cover the exact same 12 month period as data from the other 39 police forces. They do, however, cover seven months of the same period, and thus provide an indication.

The numbers provided will be an underestimate of the actual number of annual arrests, given it is data for a ten month period rather than a full twelve.

Why did these police forces not provide the information?

There is immense public interest in this type of information at the moment. In July 2025 there were allegations of a cover-up levelled against Warwickshire police as officials were hesitant to release details on the nationality and immigration status of tho man charged with raping a 12-year-old girl in Nuneaton.

The council leader of Warwickshire, George Finch went over their heads, informing the public that it was an Afghan illegal migrant who had committed the crime.

Since then, police forces have been advised that it is important to release details regarding a suspect’s nationality and ethnicity at the earliest opportunity.

Transparency is essential for the public to understand the true impact that mass migration has had, and is having, on our streets.

Despite this push, five police forces were unable to provide information to the CMC on the number of foreign national arrests between April 2024 and March 2025 - displaying woeful data handling practices. This was due to a combination of factors staff incompetence (Merseyside in particular), redundancies (West Mercia), improper advice from data analysis teams to disclosure officers (Cheshire). The result is that these forces have falled foul of FOI laws, and the public is kept in the dark.

In Essex, where the local constabulary should be aware of the importance in providing such information due to justifiable anguish regarding the Bell Hotel, the CMC did not receive any acknowledgement of the request until 18th December (the request was sent on 7th November). Even then, we were simply told “the level of service provided has been below what is expected. Our attention is focused on your request and we shall shortly be contacting you, please rest assured that the level of service from this department is our priority”. We are still awaiting their response.

Police forces are required to alert Immigration Enforcement when they hold a foreign national in custody so that immigration status checks can be conducted. This data therefore exists, and yet the government refuses to publish it despite repeated attempts by parliamentarians. Similarly, as the below FOI response from Derbyshire Constabulary shows, information on crimes committed by asylum seekers in hotels is held, but is not being released on spurious grounds.

The public is not allowed to know the impact of mass migration, and the Channel crisis, because authorities believe it will cause discontent. A better way to circumnavigate this discontent, perhaps, is for the government to pursue policies that prioritise the safety and wellbeing of the public.

There is an important point here. It is sadly inevitable that we will see more high-profile instances of migrant crime in the coming weeks and months. The public will be rightly angry and demand answers. If police forces - especially those covering large populations such as Merseyside - are beset with internal incompetence and faulty practices, there is a real risk that answers cannot be given to vital questions and that the much-needed national conversation is stymied.

What we already know about migrant crime

The Ministry of Justice refuses to publish comprehensive data on migrant crime, but we have enough of a snapshot to know that it is a significant problem.

• There are nearly 11,000 foreign nationals in Britain’s prisons.

• There are 19,000 foreign national offenders who are liable for deportation after having committed serious crimes, but yet have been released back into the community.

• There were 130,000 foreign national convictions between 2021 and 2024.

• In 2024, foreign nationals accounted for over a quarter of sexual assault convictions and 22% of rape convictions.

• Certain nationalities - such as Afghans and Eritreans - are 20 times more likely to be convicted of sexual offences than Brits.

• In London up to 47% of those charged for sexual offences were foreign nationals in 2024.

What needs to happen?

• Follow the example set by Donald Trump and introduce a ‘red list’ of countries that are unable to obtain visas.

• Amend legislation so that any foreign national convicted of a crime immediately becomes liable for deportation and, crucially, actually begin deporting them (not bribing them to leave as the Labour government is doing and as we saw in the case of child sex offender Hadush Kebatu).

• Make it an aggravating offence to commit a crime in Britain as a foreign national.

• Make it a requirement for all migrants, not just those on certain visa routes, to produce a Criminal Record Certificate for countries where they have resided.