Foreign nationals account for up to 23 per cent of sex crime convictions in the UK, despite making up just 9.3 per cent of the population, new Ministry of Justice data reveals.
The analysis, obtained under freedom of information laws, shows certain nationalities are significantly overrepresented in sexual offence statistics.
Overall, foreign nationals were 71 per cent more likely than Britons to be responsible for sex crime convictions between 2021 and 2023.
The data shows that 15 per cent of sexual offences, including rape, were committed by foreign nationals during the three-year period.
The data shows that 15 per cent of sexual offences, including rape, were committed by foreign nationals during the three-year period
PAA further eight per cent of convictions were recorded as unknown nationalities.
Experts believe those labelled "unknown" are likely to largely include non-British nationals.
This would bring the total proportion of sex crimes committed by foreigners to 23 per cent.
The figures were drawn from the police national computer and obtained by the Centre for Migration Control.
Two nationalities stood out with alarmingly high conviction rates for sexual offences.
Afghans were 22.3 times more likely than British citizens to be convicted of sex crimes, with a rate of 59 per 10,000 population.
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Foreign nationals account for up to 23 per cent of sex crime convictions in the UK, new Ministry of Justice data reveals
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Eritreans followed closely with a rate of 53.6 per 10,000, making them over 20 times more likely than Britons to be convicted of such offences.
By comparison, British citizens had a conviction rate of just 2.66 per 10,000.
In raw numbers, Romanians accounted for the highest number of sex offence convictions among foreign nationals with 987 cases.
Poles had the second highest with 208 convictions.
Indians (148) and Pakistanis (144) followed with similar numbers.
The data showed there were 16,771 convictions for sexual offences carried out by someone with a known nationality between 2021 and 2023.
Of these, migrants accounted for 2,500 convictions, while British citizens accounted for 12,619.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, described the figures as "shocking".
He said: "We need to kick out all foreign national offenders.
"Yet immigration judges routinely allow dangerous foreign offenders to stay here on spurious human rights grounds ignoring the rights of UK citizens to be protected."
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, described the figures as "shocking"
PAHe added that the Conservatives would be tabling an amendment to the Borders Bill to "disapply the Human Rights Act to immigration matters".
A Government spokesman said they were "committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities".
The spokesman confirmed plans to introduce "tougher restrictions" for foreign criminals awaiting deportation.
These include "electronic tags, night-time curfews and exclusion zones".
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will announce new terror-style powers to tag and restrict the movements of dangerous foreign nationals.
"Any foreign nationals who commit heinous crimes should be in no doubt we will do everything" to remove them, the spokesman added.
