London: Rioters who were involved in the widespread looting and violence across Britain in August came from 44 foreign countries, it has emerged.
According to the newly-released prison statistics, thieves and vandals convicted of causing millions of pounds worth of damage came from as far as Iraq, Jamaica, Poland and Ethiopia.
The statistics showed that 14 percent, roughly one in seven, of those jailed for robbery, theft, criminal damage, burglary and disorder during the riots were born abroad, the Telegraph reports.
The true number could be even higher as at least four percent of those in custody have refused to disclose their nationality.
Nationally, police forces arrested over 4,000 people, with 2,952 suspects held in London.
Meanwhile, Sir Andrew Green of the MigrationWatch pressure group has called on the government to expel foreign rioters from the country.
“It’s absolutely unacceptable that any foreign citizen should take part in a riot in Britain,” he told the Daily Mail.
“It’s important that the courts should recommend deportation in every case which would qualify,” he added.
Prison data recorded by the Ministry of Justice provided a detailed breakdown of the nationalities of those jailed for riot-related offences committed when the trouble exploded in Tottenham, north London.
According to the paper, the nationality details of those jailed would provide further weight to claims the riots had little to do with political protest but instead represented opportunist criminality.
ANI
First Published: Monday, October 24, 2011, 13:48