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Part II.

THE EXPULSION OF ALIENS.

The liability of an alien to expulsion arises under two sets of conditions :

(1) Section 3 (1) (a) of the Aliens Act, 1905, provides that if an alien is convicted of an offence for which he is liable to be sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine the Court may recommend his expulsion either in addition to or in lieu of sentence.

(2) Section 3 (1) (b) provides that if an alien is found within twelve months of his last arrival in the United Kingdom to be in receipt of poor relief, or to be wandering without any visible means of subsistence, or to be living in insanitary conditions due to overcrowding, or to have been convicted in a foreign country of an extradition crime a Court may, on proceedings being duly taken, certify the facts to the Secretary of State.

In both cases it rests with the Secretary of State to determine whether to make an Expulsion Order.

Liability of Alien to expulsion.

Aliens.

During the first year of the operation of the Act 448 recommendations for Expulsion the expulsion of convicted aliens were received by the Secretary of State. of picted Table I. shows for the whole kingdom the offences involved in the cases, the Convicted sentences, and the nationalities of the offenders. In Table II., A, B, C, and D, are shown the same facts arranged separately for the Metropolis, England and Wales (excluding the Metropolis), Scotland and Ireland.

The sentences range from a fine or 14 days (or less) imprisonment to penal servitude for 15 years. In 308 cases the question of expulsion became ripe during the year 1906 for the Secretary of State's decision. Expulsion orders were in due course made in 287 cases, the details of which are set out in Table III. Of these, 202 cases belonged to the Metropolis.

In 21 cases no expulsion order was made; in three of these the recommendations were made by courts having no jurisdiction to recommend, so that they could not be carried into effect; in three no order was necessary as the aliens were removed from the United Kingdom by their own Consul at his special request; and in one case the alien appealed against the conviction, was released on bail for the purpose of the appeal and absconded. The remaining 14 cases related to persons against whom no previous conviction was recorded, and involved special considerations, such as the length of time the alien had been in the country, the dependence on him or her of a family mostly British-born, an undertaking by a Consui to look after the alien, &c.

One of the 14 persons to whom clemency was shown in the first instance rendered himself liable a second time, was again recommended for expulsion and was expelled.

Out of the 287 persons against whom expulsion orders were made 17 were subsequently found in the United Kingdom in contravention of the order. Of these, 15 received sentences of imprisonment for the offence, and two were discharged on condition of immediate departure from the United Kingdom.

Eight persons became liable under the second set of conditions explained Expulsion above. Details are given in Table IV. In six of these cases expulsion orders of Aliens were made, and two cases were awaiting decision at the end of the year.

without Conviction.

Effect of Some time must elapse before it will be possible to gauge with any expulsion provisions approach to accuracy the effect of the expulsion provisions of the Aliens Act on Alien upon the amount or nature of alien crime in the United Kingdom.

crime.

Alien
Prison
Popula-

tion.

The statistics of convicted prisoners-though by no means an absolute index to crime-will in the long run afford a test, but it is too soon yet to expect them to show any great change. Even if Courts commonly took the view that expulsion is, in the case of an alien, a substitute for the punishment hitherto attached to crime by whomsoever committed-and, as a fact, expulsion was recommended in lieu of sentence in only one case during 1906-almost every alien recommended for expulsion would still go to swell the total of convicted aliens in prison, for it is necessary, in practically every instance, for the alien to be detained in prison after his conviction by the Court pending the Secretary of State's decision as to expulsion. Notwithstanding this, the prison statistics already yield indications that the liability to expulsion is exercising considerable influence.

*

The alien prison population reached its highest point in 1904, having increased ever since 1893-the first year for which figures are available-and at a greater rate than the total prison population. Table V. shows that while the total number of convicted persons received annually into English and Welsh prisons was on the up grade during the period from 1895 to 1904, the rate of increase was so much exceeded by that of the alien prisoners that there was a marked growth in the proportion of aliens to the total number of prisoners, viz., from 1:43 per cent. to 2.22 per cent. A change came in the year 1905, when a drop in the total number of prisoners of 1.12 per cent., as compared with the number in 1904, was accompanied by a drop of 7·01 per cent. in the number of alien prisoners, i.e., from 4,396 to 4,098. This change-perhaps the shadow of the coming Aliens Act-was continued and accelerated in 1906, the first year of the operation of the Act. The total number of convicted persons received into prison in that year fell by 6:32 per cent., while the number of aliens among them fell by 16.85 per cent.-from 4,098 to 3,399-leaving the proportion of aliens to the total number at 1-85 per cent., the lowest figure since 1899.

If the matter be tested by the figures of prisoners in custody on a given date it appears from a census taken on 22nd January, 1907, that there were 505 convicted aliens in the prisons of England and Wales; see Table VI. The last census of the same kind (see Table VII.) was taken on the 23rd April, 1904-the year before the Act was passed-and showed 635 alien convicted prisoners. As between the two records there is a decline of 20-47 per cent. This may be compared with the figures of all convicted prisoners in custody on 22nd January, 1907, viz., 18,302, and on 26th April, 1904, viz., 19,139, showing a decline between the two dates of 4.37 per cent. On 22nd January, 1907, aliens formed 277 of the total number of convicted prisoners in custody; in April, 1904, they formed 3·32 per cent.

Similar statistics as regards the alien prison population in Scotland and Ireland are given in Tables VIII. to XI. The figures are very much smaller both absolutely and in proportion to the total prison population and they do not exhibit any such marked tendency as the English figures. It would seem that in Scotland the growth of the alien prison population has not yet received any check.

*The word "alien " when used in regard to prisoners includes only those who declare themselves to have been born in foreign countries. There may be other aliens who do not so declare themselves; and it is possible that a person though so declared may be British by parentage. The figures of aliens in prison may therefore not be strictly comparable with those of aliens expelled.

TABLE I.

NATIONALITIES, OFFENCES, and SENTENCES of CONVICTED ALIENS recommended for EXPULSION during the Year 1906 throughout the UNITED KINGDOM.

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TABLE II. (A).

NATIONALITIES, OFFENCES, and SENTENCES of CONVICTED ALIENS recommended for EXPULSION during the Year 1906 in the METROPOLIS.

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TABLE II. (B).

NATIONALITIES, OFFENCES, and SENTENCES of CONVICTED ALIENS recommended for EXPULSION during the Year 1906 in ENGLAND and WALES, excluding the METROPOLIS.

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