The British government has been accused of putting the priorities of foreigners over the native population after reportedly refusing to release migrant crime statistics.
Freedom of Information requests for crime figures of foreign nationals submitted to the Ministry of Justice by the Centre for Migration Control (CMC) think tank were rejected as they could potentially lead to the “identification of the individuals concerned”, the Mail on Sunday reported.
Rejecting the FOI request, the MoJ said: “On balance the interests of the data subjects to safeguard personal information outweigh the legitimate interest in this case.”
While public British crime figures do reveal the percentage of violent or sexual offences committed by migrants as a whole, with foreigners accounting for 14.1 per cent of sex offences in 2025, the statistics fail to provide a comprehensive breakdown by type of offence or nationality, effectively preventing the public from understanding which groups of immigrants are more likely to commit certain offences like child sex assault, rape, or murder as is provided in countries like Denmark.
Commenting on the refusal of the Freedom of Information requests, Centre for Migration Control research director Robert Bates said: “It is outrageous that the Government is putting the data protection rights of foreign national offenders ahead of the British public. We have a right to know the impact mass migration is having on public safety.
“The extraordinary lengths being taken to conceal the truth suggest the Government knows there is a major problem but is more concerned about the public finding out than taking meaningful steps to tackle migrant crime.”
In addition to blocking the information requested by the CMC, the government is also attempting to reverse a ruling from the Information Commissioner demanding the release of full foreign crime statistics in England and Wales from 2018 to 2024.
While the government has so far refused to provide the public with such data, reports have indicated that certain migrant groups are disproportionately represented in prison, leading some to suggest that immigration policy should be tailored to prioritise safer population groups.
A report from The Telegraph last year, which analysed the 2021 census data in comparison to the prison rolls, found that foreigners were 27 per cent more likely to be imprisoned than British citizens.
However, the disparity was far greater for certain ethnicities, with Albanians leading the way with an imprisonment rate of 232.33 out of 10,000 people, followed by Kosovars (150), Vietnamese (148.88), Algerians (124.41), Jamaicans (110.77), Eritreans (110.7), Iraqis (104.43), and Somalis (100.37). In contrast, British citizens only had an imprisonment rate of 14 out of 10,000.
On the other hand, some migrant groups had lower imprisonment rates than Britons, including Germans (4.68), Italians (4.96), Indians (6.24), Greeks (6.36), Americans (7.27), Sri Lankans (8.17), French (8.64), and Chinese (9.39).
Mr Bates said: “The country deserves to know how many of the most serious crimes are by people who should not be in our country.”
The Government said: “We have prioritised deportation of foreign national offenders with nearly 12,000 removed since July 2024 – up 41 per cent – and have changed the law so foreign prisoners can be deported earlier than ever.”