Murderers and child rapists among crimes most wanted dragged into debate on UK security in or out of Europe
A dossier detailing free movement of some of Europe`s most dangerous criminals to Britain is being used as a weapon in the campaign to leave the EU.
A dossier detailing free movement of some of Europe`s most dangerous criminals to Britain is being used as a weapon in the campaign to leave the EU.
Murderers and child rapists are among 50 offenders identified as most wanted by Vote Leave that have headed to the UK under the European laws.
Instead of turning criminals away, Britain has allowed EU judges to “hang out a welcome sign”, the Eurosceptic group claims.
And further analysis shows how nine out of ten offenders who have committed serious offences in their home countries went on to perpetrate fresh crimes in the UK.
The In/Out comments, which sparked strong counter claims from the Remain side, come after a debate erupted in the wake of the so-called Islamic State (Daesh)-linked terror attacks in the Belgium capital of Brussels last week which killed 35 and inured at least 270 more people.
Vote Leave, one of the group`s vying for the Electoral Commission`s official Brexit campaign designation, argued that even with an opt-out from the visa-free Schengen zone, the UK is still at risk.
“EU membership means we have lost control of our borders and have been unable to prevent dangerous individuals from walking into the UK,” said Matthew Elliot, the chief executive of Vote Leave.
“Free movement of people has created free movement of criminals making the UK less safe and less secure.
We`ve allowed EU judges to hang out a welcome sign to individuals the public would rightly expect never to be allowed into the UK.
“If we want a sensible and humane migration policy, the only safe option is to Vote Leave and take back control.”
Vote Leave said the dossier shows how British families are being put in danger because EU laws have made the country less secure.
Under current rules, countries are entitled to consult previous police records but convictions are not grounds for restricting the right to free movement.
The Government is not automatically notified about the convictions of serious offenders, which paves the way for murderers to enter the country unchecked, according to Vote Leave.
It also warns there is a lack of proper supervision of dangerous criminals within the EU.
The dossier includes Lithuanian child rapist Victor Akulic and Arnis Zalkalns who is believed to have killed London schoolgirl Alice Gross in 2014. The Latvian builder, who lived unchecked in Britain despite serving a prison sentence for murdering his wife in his home country, later committed suicide.
Pole Ireneusz Bartnowski, who was convicted in 2012 for the savage murder of Giuseppe and Caterina Massaro in their Wolverhampton home, had a previous conviction for burglary and had been in the country for just two weeks when he attacked the elderly couple with a claw hammer and a knife.
Eurosceptic Tory MP Philip Hollobone earlier this year told the Commons that around 12 per cent of the prison population is made up of foreign nationals and around 47 per cent of those 10,000 inmates are from Europe.
But the document has left the campaign open to accusations of scaremongering of the worst kind from the Remain group.
Former Policing Minister Damian Green said: If it is true that leaving the EU would make murder and terror in Britain less likely, that would be an enormously important consideration for voters. It would change minds, and rightly so.
But if it isnt true, and these arguments are based on lazy misunderstandings or even untruths then it amounts to dangerous scaremongering that voters should rightly dismiss.
Worse, if there is a risk that leaving the EU would actually make the British people less safe, then they deserve to know that before they make their choice.
The truth is that the UK already has the best of both worlds, we maintain all the benefits of EU membership whilst opting out of the passport-free Schengen area and maintaining our border at Calais rather than at Dover.
“We are able to stop suspects from travelling to the UK and since 2010 we have refused entry to almost 6,000 EEA nationals, inc