There are around 3,600 organised crime groups active in
the EU, involved in drugs, human trafficking, online child exploitation and
theft. Cross-border crime is a reality and we need 21st century tools to deal
with it.
We read far too often of criminals who have escaped the
UK to live in the warmer parts of southern Europe, where they live the life of
Riley, whilst waving two fingers at their victims at home.
Last year, 14 British citizens were brought back to
Britain under a European Arrest Warrant. This Warrant allows criminals from any
EU country to be arrested abroad. Some recent high profile examples have been
-Fugitive teacher Jeremy Forrest, who fled to France with
a schoolgirl, was extradited back to England
- The UK was able to quickly extradite from Italy a
fugitive bomber, Hussain Osman, who had attempted to carry out a terror attack
in London.
- Jason McKay was extradited from Poland within two weeks
for murdering his partner. Under the old extradition arrangements, it would
have taken several years to get him back to face justice for a murdered woman
I find it amazing that anyone wants to make it easier for
foreign criminals to come to the UK to evade justice and also create a huge
amount of extra bureaucracy and cost in trying to catch criminals who escape
across Europe.
Last year, more than 1,000 foreign criminals were
deported under the European Arrest Warrant. These were issued most often for
drug trafficking, murder, fraud, child sex offences and rape. We need to
cooperate with partners in Europe to ensure people who have committed these
serious crimes do not get away with it.
Opting out of the European Arrest Warrant would make it
much harder to deport foreign criminals and would also make it more difficult
for us to bring British citizens who have committed crimes abroad back to our
country to face justice.
I have to say that I simply don’t understand the logic of
those MPs – a minority of Conservative MPs and the UKIP MP – who are implacably
opposed to the European Arrest Warrant, seemingly just because they hate the
EU.
