A Czech child abuser has claimed that the UK has failed to deport him to a prison in his home country, in spite of a transfer request by the Czech authorities and his own willingness to go.

In a letter to the Sunday Times, Desan Juran details how both he and his home nation have repeatedly requested the British authorities deport him to serve out his sentence, but have been ignored for over a year.

Juran was working as a nanny in Bradford when he was arrested in connection with a child abuse in his home country. The police later discovered he had shared over 30,000 indecent images of children online.

It is not clear why Juran, who plead guilty to 19 offences involving the sexual abuse of a young boy in the Czech Republic, was not sent home to serve his sentence in the first place. He claims the Czechs have asked the British authorities for more information so they can help to facilitate a transfer, which the Rye Hill inmate requested last June, but “as of now, half a year later, British authorities still have not provided it”.

“I am more than willing to go”, said Juran. “I know that the British prison system is overcrowded and in crisis, and I believe that getting rid of foreign national prisoners would help solve the problem, and the government wants us to believe that it is its priority.

“It is in [the] best interest of [everyone] for me to be repatriated … British taxpayers pay tens of thousands of pounds per year for keeping me here. Those six months of waiting … have already cost Britain over £15,000, and I am just one person. There are hundreds, or possibly even thousands of people like me, and if something was done about the inefficiency of British bureaucracy, it would save the taxpayers millions of pounds every year.”

The Telegraph reported that there were more than 4,000 European Union (EU) nationals in British prisons last September. Only 102 have been transferred to their home countries, despite the introduction of a prisoner transfer directive eight years ago. The number of EU nationals in English and Welsh prisons rose by 240 per cent between 2002 and 2014, costing UK taxpayers around £150m.

In June 2016 the BBC reported on an admission by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice – removed from office by Theresa May following the Brexit referendum – that EU laws “prohibit [the] UK from sending foreign criminals home” even after they have served their sentences.

Examples include Romanian rapist Mircea Gheorghiu, whose abusive history was uncovered by the Home Office after a drink-driving conviction in the UK. Gheorghiu, who entered the country illegally in 2002, was initially removed under a fast-track deportation scheme, but returned after pro-immigration judge Sir Nicholas Blake ruled that he was not a sufficiently serious threat and “should be reunited with his family as quickly as possible”.