UK forced to harbour 50 criminals including killers and rapists under EU law, Brexiteers claim
Teacher Philip Lawrence's killer has been allowed to stay in the UK thanks to EU laws
THE EU was last night accused of putting British families lives at risk - by forcing the UK to harbour convicted killers, rapists and drug traffickers
Brexit campaigners unveiled a devastating dossier of 50 dangerous criminals the Government has been prevented from booting out of the country by EU free movement laws.
They include Learco Chindamo, the Italian who murdered headteacher Philip Lawrence in 1995, and a Romanian rapist the Home Secretary was ordered to take back in after kicking him out.
Polish national Theresa Rafacz was also allowed to stay in Britain despite killing her husband after a judge said there was “no basis” under EU law for her deportation on public safety grounds.
Justice Minister and Brexit backer Dominic Raab said EU free movement laws - guaranteeing EU citizens the right to live in Britain – meant the Government was powerless to act.
He told the Sun: “EU free movement rules force us to import criminal risk, and then tie the hands of our elected Government in dealing with it.
“This has a stark impact on public safety and puts British families at risk.”
The Home Secretary has the power to deport foreign nationals if she considers it would be “conducive to the public good”. And under UK law, anyone sentenced to more than a year in prison is subject to automatic deportation.
But Vote Leave said that EU free movement law gave the criminals a right of residence, and “previous criminal convictions” were not, on their own, enough to overrule this.
The 2004 Free Movement directive adds that EU citizens who have lived in the UK for more than ten years “can only be removed on imperative grounds of public security”.
Learco Chindamo was sentenced to life in 1996 for the killing Philip Lawrence outside a school in London. In 2007, Mr Justice Collins ruled that removing him would be “disproportionate under EU law”. His lawyers argued he was from an EU country and he had lived in the UK for 20 years.
At the time, then opposition leader David Cameron said the decision “flies in the face of common sense” and was a “shining example of what is going wrong in our country”.
Mircea Gheorghiu, a Romanian national, entered the UK in 2007 and he was booted out in March 2015 after his previous jail sentence for rape emerged at a drunk driving trial.
Just eight months later Mr Justice Blake ruled the decision was unlawful under EU law and he should be “reunited with his family as quickly as possible” and given permanent residence.
French national Eddie Karwhoo – sentenced to nine years for drug offences – was allowed to remain in the UK in 2013 by judges citing EU law.
The dossier comes just days after a powerful Committee of MPs blasted the Home Secretary for failing to deport 13,000 EU and foreign criminals – either in prison or living in communities after having served their sentence.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday on the anniversary of the D-Day landings, Eurosceptic Tory Bill Cash stormed that World War II heroes didn’t give their lives so EU rapists could be protected.
He blasted: “The Home Affairs Committee were clearly right to indicate that ‘the public will question the point in the circumstances of the UK remaining in the EU’.”
The PM last month admitted it was “fantastically difficult” to deport criminals from EU countries and said the Government “should have done better”.
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In a statement last night, Immigration Minister and pro-EU campaigner James Brokenshire said leaving the EU meant Britain would no longer be able to use the European Arrest Warrant to extradite or deport wanted suspects.
And he insisted the PM had secured more deportation powers in his renegotiation – such as taking the full background of a criminal into account when deciding whether to boot them out.
But Mr Raab insisted the Commission had only pledged to “examine” the possibility of changing the terms. He said: “It is crystal clear from the UK deal that there is no change to the EU rules that frustrate the deportation of criminals putting safety at risk.”
Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove are expected to repeat the warning on a campaign trip to Suffolk today.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Gove said the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone “abets” terrorists.