Thousands of violent thugs and rapists from the EU are walking Britain’s streets and clogging up our jails because the Government has failed to send them home.

The presence of the criminals – who arrived here under EU freedom of movement rules – is undermining David Cameron’s case to remain in the EU, a report warns today.

The inquiry by MPs found the top three foreign nationalities inside our packed prisons are all now from inside the EU – with almost 1,000 from Poland alone and 600 from Romania.

Despite the Prime Minister repeatedly pledging to end the scandal, there were 4,171 criminals from the EU behind bars in England and Wales in December.

Warning: Thousands of violent thugs and rapists from the EU are walking Britain’s streets and clogging up our jails because the Government has failed to send them home (file photo)

They include rapists, robbers, paedophiles and drug dealers. The figure is all the more startling because there is a European agreement in place to send them home.

Including those from the EU, the committee says there are more than 13,000 foreign criminals in Britain – a number equivalent to a ‘small town’ – either in jail or walking our streets .

More of those now living in the community after finishing their sentences have successfully resisted deportation by using human rights legislation.

In its report today, Westminster’s Home Affairs Select Committee says the Government has ‘consistently failed’ to get a grip on the shambolic system for kicking out foreign convicts.

And it says the failure to deport more EU criminals is so dire that it casts doubt on ‘the point of the UK remaining a member of the EU’. The committee report also warns it would take a ‘modern miracle’ for Mr Cameron to meet his pledge to cut migration to under 100,000.

The intervention is another blow to the Prime Minister, who has spent the past week under constant attack over his immigration record.

A series of revelations about record levels of EU immigration and how people smugglers are exploiting Britain’s porous borders have made the referendum contest too close to call.

The cross-party committee – which includes leading figures in the In camp - said: ‘There are too many foreign national offenders from European Union countries still in the United Kingdom.

‘The public is entitled to expect a more efficient process for prisoner transfers.

It is surprising that of the predominant foreign nationalities in UK prisons, the top three are from EU countries: 983 from Poland, 764 from Ireland, and 635 from Romania.

The Home Office has failed to tackle this issue sufficiently, as EU prisoners should be the first to be removed and accepted by their countries of origin.

‘The clear inefficiencies demonstrated by this process will lead the public to question the point of the UK remaining a member of the EU.’

Despite the Prime Minister repeatedly pledging to end the scandal of foreigners clogging up our packed prisons, a staggering 9,895 were behind bars in England and Wales in December. Of these, 4,171 were from the EU – 42 per cent. The cost of housing them is an estimated £150million a year.

Britain is entitled to deport criminals from the European Union if they are sentenced to jail while non-EU criminals must have served at least one year behind bars. Meanwhile, there are an ‘unacceptable’ 5,789 foreign offenders are living in the community awaiting deportation – the highest number for five years. It is up nearly 20 per cent on the previous year.

VILE THUGS WHO ARE STILL HERE THE VIOLENT GANGLEADER Dawid Tychon led a Polish gang who attacked a father-of-four at his £2million home in London. Professor Paul Kohler was appallingly injured when he was beaten in front of his family. He was sentenced to 13 years after admitting aggravated burglary. THE SEX ATTACKER Gintas Burkinas, from Lithuania, walked into Britain after he was released from a ten-year jail term in his homeland. Within weeks, he raped a 31-year-old. He pleaded guilty to rape and grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to seven years.

THE DOUBLE RAPIST Convicted Polish rapist Rafal Bargiel, 40, came to Britain under a false name before subjecting two young women to prolonged sexual attacks to ‘teach them a lesson’. He was convicted of rape and false imprisonment and jailed for life last December.

KNUCKLE-DUSTER KILLER Viktor Lakatos, 42, moved here in 2012 from Slovakia where he had served a six years for GBH. He was jailed in January for 18 years after launching a ‘barbaric’ knuckle-duster attack on a defenceless 89-year-old jeweller. THE MURDEROUS BURGLAR Ireneusz Bartowski, a convicted burglar, 22, stabbed an elderly couple to death in 2011 – a week after arriving in the UK to stay with his sister. He was jailed for life with a minimum tariff of 34 years for double murder. THE KNIFE RAPIST Mustafa Abdullah was jailed for ten years for raping a pregnant woman at knifepoint. He was ordered to be deported but immigration judges refused saying it would breach his family rights. THE PAEDOPHILE AND RAPIST Victor Akulic, from Lithuania, raped a woman within a year of entering Britain. He even filmed the attack, and then forced the woman to watch the footage when she gave evidence. He was jailed for life with a minimum eight-and-a-half years. REVENGE KILLER AND RAPIST Ciprian Stanescu, 41, a Romanian, raped a woman within a year of arriving in the UK. He had been jailed for a revenge killing in his home country. He admitted rape and was jailed for eight years last September. CHILD TRAFFICKER AND SEX OFFENDER Eduard Peticky, a Slovakian was jailed for life for abusing and trafficking children in Rotherham. He travelled to England in 2008 and was allowed to stay despite convictions for rape in his home country. THE AXE MURDERER Intars Pless, a Latvian, was convicted of murdering a drinking companion with an axe in 1994. After his release, he moved to the UK. He was convicted of causing death while drink-driving and jailed for ten years. THE KILLER DRIVER Aso Mohammed Ibrahim ran over and killed Amy Houston, 12, in 2003 while banned from driving. The Iraqi was allowed to stay after serving a mere four months in jail because he had two children here. THE CHILD SEX ATTACKER Asylum seeker William Danga was jailed for ten years for raping a 16-year-old. After his release, the Congolese refugee, 40, raped two young girls while fighting deportation, and is now serving a 15-year sentence. Advertisement

Instead of being locked up until thrown out, they are freed to protect their ‘human rights’, at risk of absconding and potentially putting the public in danger. Nearly a third – 1,865 – have been loose for more than five years.

A string of murders and sex attacks have been committed by foreign nationals who should already have been booted out. Other horrendous crimes were committed by those let in after exploiting EU free movement rules. Justice Minister Dominic Raab, a leading Brexit campaigner, said it was clear the EU was making Britain ‘less safe’.

He added: ‘This damning report shows that the EU is making it more difficult to remove dangerous criminals which puts us at risk. It also costs UK taxpayers huge sums of money to keep these people in our prisons rather than sending them home.’

HOW THE AMERICANS SCREEN OUT EXTREMISTS The United States deploys a much tougher regime than Britain to screen out potential extremists and criminals who attempt to reach American soil. At the US border, fingerprints are harvested from all foreign arrivals to ensure anyone attempting to use a false ID can be identified. Prints are also retained for cross-checking if they later show up at a crime scene. It also utilises a formidable intelligence and security network to target undesirables, including passing a Bill in December which introduced restrictions on its visa-free travel scheme. America also maintains a ‘no fly’ list of people who are to be denied the right to board US-bound flights, containing 47,000 names. Its database of suspected terrorists holds more than one million names. Britain has similar databases, principally the Warnings Index which checks if terrorists and criminals are trying to sneak in. But last year it emerged this broke down twice a week on average. Further, any EU citizen can enter the UK without a visa, just as Britons can travel freely around the continent. When EU nationals arrive at the border, their passport details are checked against a ‘watchlist’ of suspects. But unless an offender is high-profile, the system is unlikely to be aware of their previous convictions. Advertisement

The committee’s scathing 53-page report said it was ‘surprising’ the top three nationalities of convicts were from EU countries: 983 from Poland, 764 from Ireland, and 635 from Romania.

This is despite a prisoner transfer agreement under which Britain is supposed to be able to compulsorily deport European nationals who are jailed by the UK courts.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz – an ex-Europe Minister and pro-EU campaigner – said: ‘Despite repeated warnings, the Home Office is still unable to remove foreign offenders from the UK. These failures are undermining confidence in the UK’s immigration system and in the UK’s EU membership.’

Critics will point to the lack of progress since 2006 when Charles Clarke, then the Labour home secretary, was forced to resign over the failure to boot out 1,000 foreign criminals.

Two years ago the National Audit Office found that the UK has more than 107 Prison Transfer Agreements with countries around the world. But on average, only 39 foreign prisoners a year were removed through the deals.

Once a convict has served their sentence, they can only continue to be held if there is a good chance of them being deported imminently.

But many challenge their deportation orders, often using controversial human rights or asylum laws.

New figures show that 416 foreign offenders were freed between October and December last year after completing their sentences, but only six were deported. Another 14 were given permission to stay.

The committee said ‘too many’ EU convicts were still in prison because the Home Office had ‘failed to tackle’ the problem. Figures last month revealed fewer than two EU prisoners a month were being deported from UK jails after a Brussels transfer deal descended into farce.

The idea is that the prisoners will serve their sentences back home – with the UK taxpayer no longer picking up the bill. But the system has been hit by problems. In total, only 402 EU prisoners have been sent home since 2007, mainly under bilateral agreements between Britain and individual countries.